The Constitution provides that "a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time",[15] that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code.[16] The sums of money reported in the "Statements" are currently being expressed in U.S. dollars (for example, see the 2009 Financial Report of the United States Government).[17] The U.S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States.

The word "dollar" is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution. There, "dollars" is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales; in 1792 the U.S. Congress passed a Coinage Act. Section 9 of that act authorized the production of various coins, including "DOLLARS OR UNITS—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver". Section 20 of the act provided, "That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units... and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation". In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States.

Unlike the Spanish milled dollar, the U.S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. In addition to the dollar the coinage act officially established monetary units of mill or one-thousandth of a dollar (symbol ₥), cent or one-hundredth of a dollar (symbol ¢), dime or one-tenth of a dollar, and eagle or ten dollars, with prescribed weights and composition of gold, silver, or copper for each. It was proposed in the mid-1800s that one hundred dollars be known as a union, but no union coins were ever struck and only patterns for the $50 half union exist. However, only cents are in everyday use as divisions of the dollar; "dime" is used solely as the name of the coin with the value of 10¢, while "eagle" and "mill" are largely unknown to the general public, though mills are sometimes used in matters of tax levies, and gasoline prices are usually in the form of $X.XX9 per gallon, e.g., $3.599, more commonly written as $3.59​9⁄10. When currently issued in circulating form, denominations equal to or less than a dollar are emitted as U.S. coins while denominations equal to or greater than a dollar are emitted as Federal Reserve notes (with the exception of gold, silver and platinum coins valued up to $100 as legal tender, but worth far more as bullion). Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the note form is significantly more common; in the past, "paper money" was occasionally issued in denominations less than a dollar (fractional currency) and gold coins were issued for circulation up to the value of $20 (known as the "double eagle", discontinued in the 1930s). The term eagle was used in the Coinage Act of 1792 for the denomination of ten dollars, and subsequently was used in naming gold coins. Paper currency less than one dollar in denomination, known as "fractional currency", was also sometimes pejoratively referred to as "shinplasters"; in 1854, James Guthrie, then Secretary of the Treasury, proposed creating $100, $50 and $25 gold coins, which were referred to as a "Union", "Half Union", and "Quarter Union",[18] thus implying a denomination of 1 Union = $100.

Today, USD notes are made from cotton fiber paper, unlike most common paper, which is made of wood fiber. U.S. coins are produced by the United States Mint. U.S. dollar banknotes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and, since 1914, have been issued by the Federal Reserve. The "large-sized notes" issued before 1928 measured 7.42 by 3.125 inches (188.5 by 79.4 mm); small-sized notes, introduced that year, measure 6.14 by 2.61 by 0.0043 inches (155.96 by 66.29 by 0.11 mm). When the current, smaller sized U.S. currency was introduced it was referred to as Philippine-sized currency because the Philippines had previously adopted the same size for its legal currency.

In the 16th century, Count Hieronymus Schlick of Bohemia began minting coins known as Joachimstalers (from German thal, or nowadays usually Tal, "valley", cognate with "dale" in English), named for Joachimstal, the valley where the silver was mined (St. Joachim's Valley, now Jáchymov; then part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic).[19] Joachimstaler was later shortened to the German Taler, a word that eventually found its way into Danish and Swedish as daler, Norwegian as dalar and daler, Dutch as daler or daalder, Ethiopian as ታላሪ (talari), Hungarian as tallér, Italian as tallero, and English as dollar.[19] Alternatively, thaler is said to come from the German coin Guldengroschen ("great guilder", being of silver but equal in value to a gold guilder), minted from the silver from Joachimsthal.

The coins minted at Joachimsthal soon lent their name to other coins of similar size and weight from other places. One such example, was a Dutch coin depicting a lion, hence its Dutch name leeuwendaler (in English: lion dollar).

The leeuwendaler was authorized to contain 427.16 grains of .75 fine silver and passed locally for between 36 and 42 stuivers. It was lighter than the large-denomination coins then in circulation, thus it was more advantageous for a Dutch merchant to pay a foreign debt in leeuwendalers and it became the coin of choice for foreign trade.

The leeuwendaler was popular in the Dutch East Indies and in the Dutch New Netherland Colony (New York), and circulated throughout the Thirteen Colonies during the 17th and early 18th centuries. It was also popular throughout Eastern Europe, where it led to the current Romanian and Moldovan currency being called leu (literally "lion").

Among the English-speaking community, the coin came to be popularly known as lion dollar – and is the origin of the name dollar.[20] The modern American-English pronunciation of dollar is still remarkably close to the 17th-century Dutch pronunciation of daler.[21]

By analogy with this lion dollar, Spanish pesos – with the same weight and shape as the lion dollar – came to be known as Spanish dollars.[21] By the mid-18th century, the lion dollar had been replaced by the Spanish dollar, the famous "piece of eight", which was distributed widely in the Spanish colonies in the New World and in the Philippines.[22] Eventually, dollar became the name of the first official American currency.

The colloquialism "buck"(s) (much like the British word "quid"(s, pl) for the pound sterling) is often used to refer to dollars of various nations, including the U.S. dollar. This term, dating to the 18th century, may have originated with the colonial leather trade, it may also have originated from a poker term.[23] "Greenback" is another nickname originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the Civil War for the North.[24] The original note was printed in black and green on the back side, it is still used to refer to the U.S. dollar (but not to the dollars of other countries). Other well-known names of the dollar as a whole in denominations include "greenmail", "green" and "dead presidents" (the last because deceased presidents are pictured on most bills).

A "grand", sometimes shortened to simply "G", is a common term for the amount of $1,000, the suffix "K" or "k" (from "kilo-") is also commonly used to denote this amount (such as "$10k" to mean $10,000). However, the $1,000 note is no longer in general use. A "large" or "stack", it is usually a reference to a multiple of $1,000 (such as "fifty large" meaning $50,000). The $100 note is nicknamed "Benjamin", "Benji", "Ben", or "Franklin" (after Benjamin Franklin), "C-note" (C being the Roman numeral for 100), "Century note" or "bill" (e.g. "two bills" being $200). The $50 note is occasionally called a "yardstick" or a "grant" (after President Ulysses S. Grant, pictured on the obverse). The $20 note is referred to as a "double sawbuck", "Jackson" (after Andrew Jackson), or "double eagle". The $10 note is referred to as a "sawbuck", "ten-spot" or "Hamilton" (after Alexander Hamilton). The $5 note as "Lincoln", "fin", "fiver" or "five-spot". The infrequently-used $2 note is sometimes called "deuce", "Tom", or "Jefferson" (after Thomas Jefferson). The $1 note as a "single" or "buck", the dollar has also been referred to as a "bone" and "bones" in plural (e.g. "twenty bones" is equal to $20). The newer designs, with portraits displayed in the main body of the obverse (rather than in cameo insets), upon paper color-coded by denomination, are sometimes referred to as "bigface" notes or "Monopoly money".

The symbol $, usually written before the numerical amount, is used for the U.S. dollar (as well as for many other currencies). The sign was the result of a late 18th-century evolution of the scribal abbreviation "ps" for the peso, the common name for the Spanish dollars that were in wide circulation in the New World from the 16th to the 19th centuries. These Spanish pesos or dollars were minted in Spanish America, namely in Mexico City; Potosí, Bolivia; and Lima, Peru. The p and the s eventually came to be written over each other giving rise to $.[25][26][27][28]

Yet another explanation suggests that the dollar sign was formed from the capital letters U and S written or printed one on top of the other, this theory, popularized by novelist Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged,[29] does not consider the fact that the symbol was already in use before the formation of the United States.[30]

Obverse of rare 1934 $500 Federal Reserve Note, featuring a portrait of President William McKinley.

Reverse of a $500 Federal Reserve Note.

The American dollar coin was initially based on the value and look of the Spanish dollar, used widely in Spanish America from the 16th to the 19th centuries, the first dollar coins issued by the United States Mint (founded 1792) were similar in size and composition to the Spanish dollar, minted in Mexico and Peru. The Spanish, U.S. silver dollars, and later, Mexican silver pesos circulated side by side in the United States, and the Spanish dollar and Mexican peso remained legal tender until the Coinage Act of 1857. The coinage of various English colonies also circulated, the lion dollar was popular in the Dutch New Netherland Colony (New York), but the lion dollar also circulated throughout the English colonies during the 17th century and early 18th century. Examples circulating in the colonies were usually worn so that the design was not fully distinguishable, thus they were sometimes referred to as "dog dollars".[31]

The U.S. dollar was first defined by the Coinage Act of 1792, which specified a "dollar" to be based in the Spanish milled dollar and of 371 grains and 4 sixteenths part of a grain of pure or 416 grains (27.0 g) of standard silver and an "eagle" to be 247 and 4 eighths of a grain or 270 grains (17 g) of gold (again depending on purity).[32] The choice of the value 371 grains arose from Alexander Hamilton's decision to base the new American unit on the average weight of a selection of worn Spanish dollars. Hamilton got the treasury to weigh a sample of Spanish dollars and the average weight came out to be 371 grains. A new Spanish dollar was usually about 377 grains in weight, and so the new U.S. dollar was at a slight discount in relation to the Spanish dollar.

The same coinage act also set the value of an eagle at 10 dollars, and the dollar at ​1⁄10 eagle. It called for 90% silver alloy coins in denominations of 1, ​1⁄2, ​1⁄4, ​1⁄10, and ​1⁄20 dollars; it called for 90% gold alloy coins in denominations of 1, ​1⁄2, ​1⁄4, and ​1⁄10 eagles. The value of gold or silver contained in the dollar was then converted into relative value in the economy for the buying and selling of goods, this allowed the value of things to remain fairly constant over time, except for the influx and outflux of gold and silver in the nation's economy.[33]

The early currency of the United States did not exhibit faces of presidents, as is the custom now;[34] although today, by law, only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency.[35] In fact, the newly formed government was against having portraits of leaders on the currency, a practice compared to the policies of European monarchs,[36] the currency as we know it today did not get the faces they currently have until after the early 20th century; before that "heads" side of coinage used profile faces and striding, seated, and standing figures from Greek and Roman mythology and composite Native Americans. The last coins to be converted to profiles of historic Americans were the dime (1946) and the Dollar (1971).

Continental currency depreciated badly during the war, giving rise to the famous phrase "not worth a continental".[37] A primary problem was that monetary policy was not coordinated between Congress and the states, which continued to issue bills of credit. Additionally, neither Congress nor the governments of the several states had the will or the means to retire the bills from circulation through taxation or the sale of bonds,[38] the currency was ultimately replaced by the silver dollar at the rate of 1 silver dollar to 1000 continental dollars.

From 1792, when the Mint Act was passed, the dollar was defined as 371.25 grains (24.056 g) of silver. The gold coins that were minted were not given any denomination and traded for a market value relative to the Congressional standard of the silver dollar. 1834 saw a shift in the gold standard to 23.2 grains (1.50 g), followed by a slight adjustment to 23.22 grains (1.505 g) in 1837 (16:1 ratio).[citation needed]

In 1862, paper money was issued without the backing of precious metals, due to the Civil War. Silver and gold coins continued to be issued and in 1878 the link between paper money and coins was reinstated, this disconnection from gold and silver backing also occurred during the War of 1812. The use of paper money not backed by precious metals had also occurred under the Articles of Confederation from 1777 to 1788, with no solid backing and being easily counterfeited, the continentals quickly lost their value, giving rise to the phrase "not worth a continental". This was a primary reason for the "No state shall... make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts" clause in article 1, section 10 of the United States Constitution.

In order to finance the War of 1812, Congress authorized the issuance of Treasury Notes, interest-bearing short-term debt that could be used to pay public dues. While they were intended to serve as debt, they did function "to a limited extent" as money. Treasury Notes were again printed to help resolve the reduction in public revenues resulting from the Panic of 1837 and the Panic of 1857, as well as to help finance the Mexican–American War and the Civil War.

In addition to Treasury Notes, in 1861, Congress authorized the Treasury to borrow $50 million in the form of Demand Notes, which did not bear interest but could be redeemed on demand for precious metals. However, by December 1861, the Union government's supply of specie was outstripped by demand for redemption and they were forced to suspend redemption temporarily, the following February, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act of 1862, issuing United States Notes, which were not redeemable on demand and bore no interest, but were legal tender, meaning that creditors had to accept them at face value for any payment except for public debts and import tariffs. However, silver and gold coins continued to be issued, resulting in the depreciation of the newly printed notes through Gresham's Law; in 1869, Supreme Court ruled in Hepburn v. Griswold that Congress could not require creditors to accept United States Notes, but overturned that ruling the next year in the Legal Tender Cases. In 1875, Congress passed the Specie Payment Resumption Act, requiring the Treasury to allow US Notes to be redeemed for gold after January 1, 1879, the Treasury ceased to issue United States Notes in 1971.

The Gold Standard Act of 1900 abandoned the bimetallic standard and defined the dollar as 23.22 grains (1.505 g) of gold, equivalent to setting the price of 1 troy ounce of gold at $20.67. Silver coins continued to be issued for circulation until 1964, when all silver was removed from dimes and quarters, and the half dollar was reduced to 40% silver. Silver half dollars were last issued for circulation in 1970. Gold coins were confiscated by Executive Order 6102 issued in 1933 by Franklin Roosevelt, the gold standard was changed to 13.71 grains (0.888 g), equivalent to setting the price of 1 troy ounce of gold at $35. This standard persisted until 1968.

Between 1968 and 1975, a variety of pegs to gold were put in place, eventually culminating in a sudden end, on August 15, 1971, to the convertibility of dollars to gold later dubbed the Nixon Shock, the last peg was $42.22 per ounce[citation needed] before the U.S. dollar was allowed to freely float on currency markets.

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the largest note it ever printed was the $100,000 Gold Certificate, Series 1934. These notes were printed from December 18, 1934, through January 9, 1935, and were issued by the Treasurer of the United States to Federal Reserve Banks only against an equal amount of gold bullion held by the Treasury, these notes were used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks and were not circulated among the general public.

American Eagles originally were not available from the Mint for individuals but had to be purchased from authorized dealers. In 2006 The Mint began direct sales to individuals of uncirculated bullion coins with a special finish, and bearing a "W" mintmark.

Technically, all these coins are still legal tender at face value, though some are far more valuable today for their numismatic value, and for gold and silver coins, their precious metal value, from 1965 to 1970 the Kennedy half dollar was the only circulating coin with any silver content, which was removed in 1971 and replaced with cupronickel. However, since 1992, the U.S. Mint has produced special Silver Proof Sets in addition to the regular yearly proof sets with silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars in place of the standard copper-nickel versions; in addition, an experimental $4.00 (Stella) coin was also minted in 1879, but never placed into circulation, and is properly considered to be a pattern rather than an actual coin denomination.

The $50 coin mentioned was only produced in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915) celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal. Only 1,128 were made, 645 of which were octagonal; this remains the only U.S. coin that was not round as well as the largest and heaviest U.S. coin ever produced.

A $100 gold coin was produced in High relief during 2015, although it was primarily produced for collectors, not for general circulation.[40]

From 1934 to present, the only denominations produced for circulation have been the familiar penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar, the nickel is the only coin still in use today that is essentially unchanged (except in its design) from its original version. Every year since 1866, the nickel has been 75% copper and 25% nickel, except for 4 years during World War II when nickel was needed for the war.

The United States Mint produces Proof Sets specifically for collectors and speculators. Silver Proofs tend to be the standard designs but with the dime, quarter, and half dollar containing 90% silver. Starting in 1983 and ending in 1997, the Mint also produced proof sets containing the year's commemorative coins alongside the regular coins. Another type of proof set is the Presidential Dollar Proof Set where four special $1 coins are minted each year featuring a president, because of budget constraints and increasing stockpiles of these relatively unpopular coins, the production of new Presidential dollar coins for circulation was suspended on December 13, 2011, by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Future minting of such coins will be made solely for collectors.[43]

2007 had George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison

2008 had James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren

2009 had William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor

Dollar coins have not been very popular in the United States.[45]Silver dollars were minted intermittently from 1794 through 1935; a copper-nickel dollar of the same large size, featuring President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was minted from 1971 through 1978. Gold dollars were also minted in the 19th century, the Susan B. Anthonydollar coin was introduced in 1979; these proved to be unpopular because they were often mistaken for quarters, due to their nearly equal size, their milled edge, and their similar color. Minting of these dollars for circulation was suspended in 1980 (collectors' pieces were struck in 1981), but, as with all past U.S. coins, they remain legal tender. As the number of Anthony dollars held by the Federal Reserve and dispensed primarily to make change in postal and transit vending machines had been virtually exhausted, additional Anthony dollars were struck in 1999; in 2000, a new $1 coin, featuring Sacagawea, (the Sacagawea dollar) was introduced, which corrected some of the problems of the Anthony dollar by having a smooth edge and a gold color, without requiring changes to vending machines that accept the Anthony dollar. However, this new coin has failed to achieve the popularity of the still-existing $1 bill and is rarely used in daily transactions, the failure to simultaneously withdraw the dollar bill and weak publicity efforts have been cited by coin proponents as primary reasons for the failure of the dollar coin to gain popular support.[46]

In February 2007, the U.S. Mint, under the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005,[47] introduced a new $1 U.S. Presidential dollar coin. Based on the success of the "50 State Quarters" series, the new coin features a sequence of presidents in order of their inaugurations, starting with George Washington, on the obverse side, the reverse side features the Statue of Liberty. To allow for larger, more detailed portraits, the traditional inscriptions of "E Pluribus Unum", "In God We Trust", the year of minting or issuance, and the mint mark will be inscribed on the edge of the coin instead of the face, this feature, similar to the edge inscriptions seen on the British £1 coin, is not usually associated with U.S. coin designs. The inscription "Liberty" has been eliminated, with the Statue of Liberty serving as a sufficient replacement; in addition, due to the nature of U.S. coins, this will be the first time there will be circulating U.S. coins of different denominations with the same president featured on the obverse (heads) side (Lincoln/penny, Jefferson/nickel, Franklin D. Roosevelt/dime, Washington/quarter, Kennedy/half dollar, and Eisenhower/dollar). Another unusual fact about the new $1 coin is Grover Cleveland will have two coins with two different portraits issued due to the fact he was the only U.S. President to be elected to two non-consecutive terms.[48]

Early releases of the Washington coin included error coins shipped primarily from the Philadelphia mint to Florida and Tennessee banks. Highly sought after by collectors, and trading for as much as $850 each within a week of discovery, the error coins were identified by the absence of the edge impressions "E PLURIBUS UNUM IN GOD WE TRUST 2007 P", the mint of origin is generally accepted to be mostly Philadelphia, although identifying the source mint is impossible without opening a mint pack also containing marked units. Edge lettering is minted in both orientations with respect to "heads", some amateur collectors were initially duped into buying "upside down lettering error" coins,[49] some cynics also erroneously point out that the Federal Reserve makes more profit from dollar bills than dollar coins because they wear out in a few years, whereas coins are more permanent. The fallacy of this argument arises because new notes printed to replace worn out notes, which have been withdrawn from circulation, bring in no net revenue to the government to offset the costs of printing new notes and destroying the old ones, as most vending machines are incapable of making change in banknotes, they commonly accept only $1 bills, though a few will give change in dollar coins.

^The letter "P" is used for the Philadelphia mint mark on all coins (except cents) released from 1980 onward. Before this it had only been used on silver Jefferson nickels from 1942 to 1945.

^Between 1973 and 1986 there was no mint mark (these coins are indistinguishable from coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint from 1973 to 1980); after 1988 the letter "W" was used for coinage, except for the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle.

^It is now the home of the Nevada State Museum, which still strikes commemorative medallions with the "CC" mint mark (most recently in 2014 commemorating the Nevada Sesquicentennial), using former mint's the original coin press.

^Although the mint mark "D" has been used by two separate mints, it is easy to distinguish between the two, as any 19th century coinage is Dahlonega, and any 20th or 21st century coins are Denver.

^During the period in which this mint branch was operational, The Philippines was an insular territory and then commonwealth of the U.S.; it was the first (and to date only) U.S. branch mint located outside the Continental United States.

^The letter "M" was used for the Manila mint mark on all coins released from 1925 onward; before this it had produced its coins with no mintmark.

^During the Civil War, this mint operated under the control of the State of Louisiana (February 1861) and the Confederate States of America (March 1861) until it ran out of bullion later in that year; some Half Dollars have been identified as being the issue of the State of Louisiana and the Confederacy.

The U.S. Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power to "borrow money on the credit of the United States".[51] Congress has exercised that power by authorizing Federal Reserve Banks to issue Federal Reserve Notes, those notes are "obligations of the United States" and "shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank".[52] Federal Reserve Notes are designated by law as "legal tender" for the payment of debts.[53] Congress has also authorized the issuance of more than 10 other types of banknotes, including the United States Note[54] and the Federal Reserve Bank Note. The Federal Reserve Note is the only type that remains in circulation since the 1970s.

Currently printed denominations are $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. Notes above the $100 denomination stopped being printed in 1946 and were officially withdrawn from circulation in 1969, these notes were used primarily in inter-bank transactions or by organized crime; it was the latter usage that prompted President Richard Nixon to issue an executive order in 1969 halting their use. With the advent of electronic banking, they became less necessary. Notes in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $100,000 were all produced at one time; see large denomination bills in U.S. currency for details. With the exception of the $100,000 bill (which was only issued as a Series 1934 Gold Certificate and was never publicly circulated; thus it is illegal to own), these notes are now collectors' items and are worth more than their face value to collectors.

Though still predominantly green, post-2004 series incorporate other colors to better distinguish different denominations, as a result of a 2008 decision in an accessibility lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to implement a raised tactile feature in the next redesign of each note, except the $1 and the current version of the $100 bill. It also plans larger, higher-contrast numerals, more color differences, and distribution of currency readers to assist the visually impaired during the transition period.[55]

The monetary base consists of coins and Federal Reserve Notes in circulation outside the Federal Reserve Banks and the U.S. Treasury, plus deposits held by depository institutions at Federal Reserve Banks, the adjusted monetary base has increased from approximately 400 billion dollars in 1994, to 800 billion in 2005, and over 3000 billion in 2013.[56] The amount of cash in circulation is increased (or decreased) by the actions of the Federal Reserve System. Eight times a year, the 12-person Federal Open Market Committee meets to determine U.S. monetary policy.[57] Every business day, the Federal Reserve System engages in Open market operations to carry out that monetary policy.[58] If the Federal Reserve desires to increase the money supply, it will buy securities (such as U.S. Treasury Bonds) anonymously from banks in exchange for dollars. Conversely, it will sell securities to the banks in exchange for dollars, to take dollars out of circulation.[59]

When the Federal Reserve makes a purchase, it credits the seller's reserve account (with the Federal Reserve), this money is not transferred from any existing funds—it is at this point that the Federal Reserve has created new high-powered money. Commercial banks can freely withdraw in cash any excess reserves from their reserve account at the Federal Reserve. To fulfill those requests, the Federal Reserve places an order for printed money from the U.S. Treasury Department,[60] the Treasury Department in turn sends these requests to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (to print new dollar bills) and the Bureau of the Mint (to stamp the coins).

Usually, the short-term goal of open market operations is to achieve a specific short-term interest rate target; in other instances, monetary policy might instead entail the targeting of a specific exchange rate relative to some foreign currency or else relative to gold. For example, in the case of the United States the Federal Reserve targets the federal funds rate, the rate at which member banks lend to one another overnight, the other primary means of conducting monetary policy include: (i) Discount window lending (as lender of last resort); (ii) Fractional deposit lending (changes in the reserve requirement); (iii) Moral suasion (cajoling certain market players to achieve specified outcomes); (iv) "Open mouth operations" (talking monetary policy with the market).

The 6th paragraph of Section 8 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides that the U.S. Congress shall have the power to "coin money" and to "regulate the value" of domestic and foreign coins. Congress exercised those powers when it enacted the Coinage Act of 1792, that Act provided for the minting of the first U.S. dollar and it declared that the U.S. dollar shall have "the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current".[61]

The table to the right shows the equivalent amount of goods that, in a particular year, could be purchased with $1, the table shows that from 1774 through 2012 the U.S. dollar has lost about 97.0% of its buying power.[62]

The decline in the value of the U.S. dollar corresponds to price inflation, which is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.[63] A consumer price index (CPI) is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households, the United States Consumer Price Index, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services in the United States.[64] It reflects inflation as experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses.[65] A graph showing the U.S. CPI relative to 1982–1984 and the annual year-over-year change in CPI is shown at right.

The value of the U.S. dollar declined significantly during wartime, especially during the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II.[66] The Federal Reserve, which was established in 1913, was designed to furnish an "elastic" currency subject to "substantial changes of quantity over short periods", which differed significantly from previous forms of high-powered money such as gold, national bank notes, and silver coins.[67] Over the very long run, the prior gold standard kept prices stable—for instance, the price level and the value of the U.S. dollar in 1914 was not very different from the price level in the 1880s. The Federal Reserve initially succeeded in maintaining the value of the U.S. dollar and price stability, reversing the inflation caused by the First World War and stabilizing the value of the dollar during the 1920s, before presiding over a 30% deflation in U.S. prices in the 1930s.[68]

Under the Bretton Woods system established after World War II, the value of gold was fixed to $35 per ounce, and the value of the U.S. dollar was thus anchored to the value of gold. Rising government spending in the 1960s, however, led to doubts about the ability of the United States to maintain this convertibility, gold stocks dwindled as banks and international investors began to convert dollars to gold, and as a result the value of the dollar began to decline. Facing an emerging currency crisis and the imminent danger that the United States would no longer be able to redeem dollars for gold, gold convertibility was finally terminated in 1971 by President Nixon, resulting in the "Nixon shock".[69]

The value of the U.S. dollar was therefore no longer anchored to gold, and it fell upon the Federal Reserve to maintain the value of the U.S. currency. The Federal Reserve, however, continued to increase the money supply, resulting in stagflation and a rapidly declining value of the U.S. dollar in the 1970s. This was largely due to the prevailing economic view at the time that inflation and real economic growth were linked (the Phillips curve), and so inflation was regarded as relatively benign.[69] Between 1965 and 1981, the U.S. dollar lost two thirds of its value.[62]

Over the thirty-year period from 1981 to 2009, the U.S. dollar lost over half its value.[62] This is because the Federal Reserve has targeted not zero inflation, but a low, stable rate of inflation—between 1987 and 1997, the rate of inflation was approximately 3.5%, and between 1997 and 2007 it was approximately 2%. The so-called "Great Moderation" of economic conditions since the 1970s is credited to monetary policy targeting price stability.[70]

There is ongoing debate about whether central banks should target zero inflation (which would mean a constant value for the U.S. dollar over time) or low, stable inflation (which would mean a continuously but slowly declining value of the dollar over time, as is the case now). Although some economists are in favor of a zero inflation policy and therefore a constant value for the U.S. dollar,[68] others contend that such a policy limits the ability of the central bank to control interest rates and stimulate the economy when needed.[71]

^Aiton, Arthur S. and Benjamin W. Wheeler (May 1931). "The First American Mint", The Hispanic American Historical Review11 (2), 198 and note 2 on 198.

^Nussbaum, Arthur (1957). A History of the Dollar. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 56. The dollar sign, $, is connected with the peso, contrary to popular belief, which considers it to be an abbreviation of 'U.S.' The two parallel lines represented one of the many abbreviations of 'P,' and the 'S' indicated the plural. The abbreviation '$.' was also used for the peso, and is still used in Argentina.

^"Open Market Operations". Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Retrieved January 11, 2008. Open market operations enable the Federal Reserve to affect the supply of reserve balances in the banking system.

^ ab1970–1992Archived October 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.. 1980 derived from AUD–USD=1.1055 and AUD–GBP=0.4957 at end of Dec 1979: 0.4957/1.1055=0.448394392; 1985 derived from AUD–USD=0.8278 and AUD–GBP=0.7130 at end of Dec 1984: 0.7130/0.8278=0.861319159

1.
Federal Reserve Note
–
Federal Reserve Notes, also United States banknotes or U. S. banknotes, are the banknotes currently used in the United States of America. Denominated in United States dollars, Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing on paper made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Federal Reserve Notes are the only type of U. S. banknote currently produced. The notes are then put into circulation by the Federal Reserve Banks, at which point they become liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, Federal Reserve Notes are legal tender, with the words this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private printed on each note. They have replaced United States Notes, which were issued by the Treasury Department. Federal Reserve Notes are backed by the assets of the Federal Reserve Banks and these assets are generally Treasury securities which have been purchased by the Federal Reserve through its Federal Open Market Committee in a process called debt monetizing. This monetized debt can increase the supply, either with the issuance of new Federal Reserve Notes or with the creation of debt money. This increase in the base leads to a larger increase in the money supply through fractional-reserve banking as deposits are lent. Prior to centralized banking, each bank issued its own notes. The first institution with responsibilities of a bank in the U. S. was the First Bank of the United States. Its charter was not renewed in 1811, in 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered, its charter was not renewed in 1836, after President Andrew Jackson campaigned heavily for its disestablishment. From 1837 to 1862, in the Free Banking Era there was no central bank. From 1862 to 1913, a system of banks was instituted by the 1863 National Banking Act. The first printed notes were Series 1914, in 1928, cost-cutting measures were taken to reduce the note to the size it is today. The authority of the Federal Reserve Banks to issue notes comes from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, legally, they are liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks and obligations of the United States government. Although not issued by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Notes carry the signature of the Treasurer of the United States, at the time of the Federal Reserves creation, the law provided for notes to be redeemed to the Treasury in gold or lawful money. The Emergency Banking Act of 1933 removed the gold obligation and authorized the Treasury to satisfy these redemption demands with current notes of equal face value, under the Bretton Woods system, although citizens could not possess gold, the federal government continued to maintain a stable international gold price. This system ended with the Nixon Shock of 1971, present-day Federal Reserve Notes are not backed by convertibility to any specific commodity, but only by the collateral assets that Federal Reserve Banks post in order to obtain them. Series 1914 FRN were the first of two large-size issues, denominations were $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 printed first with a red seal and then continued with a blue seal

2.
ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency

3.
Eagle (United States coin)
–
The eagle is a base-unit of denomination issued only for gold coinage by the United States Mint based on the original values designated by the Coinage Act of 1792. It has been obsolete as a circulating denomination since 1933, the eagle was the largest of the four main decimal base-units of denomination used for circulating coinage in the United States prior to 1933, the year when gold was withdrawn from circulation. These four main base-units of denomination were the cent, the dime, the dollar, and the eagle, where a dime is 10 cents, a dollar is 10 dimes, and an eagle is 10 dollars. The eagle base-unit of denomination served as the basis of the gold quarter-eagle, the gold half-eagle, the eagle, in this regard the United States followed long-standing European practice of different base-unit denominations for different precious and semi-precious metals. In the United States, the cent was the base-unit of denomination in copper, the dime and dollar were the base-units of denomination in silver. The eagle was the base-unit of denomination in gold although, unlike cent, dime, thus, a double eagle showed its value as twenty dollars rather than two eagles. The diameter of eagles was 27 mm, half eagles 21 mm, quarter eagles 17 mm, originally the purity of all circulating gold coins in the United States was eleven twelfths pure gold and one twelfth alloy. Under U. S. law, the alloy was composed only of silver and copper, thus, U. S. gold coins had 22/24 pure gold, at most 1/24 silver, with the remaining one–two 24ths copper. The weight of circulating, standard gold, eagles was set at 270 grains, half eagles at 135 grains and this resulted in the eagle containing 0.5156 troy ounces of pure gold. S gold coins. As a result, the specification for standard gold was lowered from 22 karat to.8992 fine. In 1837 a small change in the fineness of the gold was made, the new 1837 standard for the eagle was 258 grains of.900 fine gold, with other coins proportionately sized. Between 1838 and 1840, the content was reduced to zero—the eagle in 1838, half eagle in 1839. Using only copper as the alloy in gold coins matched long standing English practice, the 1837 standard resulted in a gold content of only 0.9675 troy ounces of gold per double eagle and 0.48375 troy ounces for the eagle. It would be used for all circulating gold coins until U. S. gold coin circulation was halted in 1933, as part of its Modern United States commemorative coins program the United States mint has issued several commemorative eagle coins. In 1984, an eagle was issued to commemorate the Summer Olympics, the pre-1933.900 fine gold standard was restored, this would also be used in half-eagle gold commemoratives as well. The coins would be identical in fineness and size to their counterparts of the same face value

4.
Dime (United States coin)
–
The dime, in U. S. usage, is a ten-cent coin, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as one dime. The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792, the dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U. S. coins currently minted for circulation, being.705 inches in diameter and.053 inches in thickness. The obverse of the coin depicts the profile of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the reverse boasts an olive branch, a torch, as of 2011, the dime coin cost 5.65 cents to produce. The word dime comes from the French word dîme, meaning tithe or tenth part, from the Latin decima. In the past prices have occasionally been quoted on signage and other materials in terms of dimes, abbreviated as d or a d with a slash through it as with the cent. The Coinage Act of 1792 established the dime, cent, and mill as subdivisions of the equal to 1⁄10. The first known proposal for a coinage system in the United States was made in 1783 by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, the nations first Secretary of the Treasury, recommended the issuance of six such coins in 1791, among the six was a silver coin, which shall be, in weight and value, one tenth part of a silver unit or dollar. Thus dimes are made small and thin, with the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, the dimes silver content was removed. Dimes from 1965 to the present are composed of layers of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. Starting in 1992, the U. S. Mint began issuing Silver Proof Sets annually and these sets are intended solely for collectors, and are not meant for general circulation. Since its introduction in 1796, the dime has been issued in six different major types, the name for each type indicates the design on the coins obverse. The composition of the disme was set at 89.24 percent silver and 10.76 percent copper, in 1792, a limited number of dismes were minted but never circulated. Some of these were struck in copper, indicating that the 1792 dismes were in fact pattern coins, the first dimes minted for circulation did not appear until 1796, due to a lack of demand for the coin and production problems at the United States Mint. The first dime to be circulated was the Draped Bust dime and it featured the same obverse and reverse as all other circulating coins of the time, the so-called Draped Bust/Small Eagle design. This design was the work of then-Chief Engraver Robert Scot, the portrait of Liberty on the obverse was based on a Gilbert Stuart drawing of prominent Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, wife of noted American statesman William Bingham. The reverse design is of a bald eagle surrounded by palm and olive branches. Since the Coinage Act of 1792 required only that the cent and half cent display their denomination, all 1796 dimes have 15 stars on the obverse, representing the number of U. S. states then in the Union

5.
Cent (currency)
–
In many national currencies, the cent, commonly represented by the cent sign is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word centum meaning hundred, cent also refers to a coin worth one cent. In the United States and Canada, the 1¢ coin is known by the nickname penny, alluding to the British coin. In Ireland the 1c coin is sometimes known as a penny in reference to the Irish penny. A cent is commonly represented by the cent sign, a letter c crossed by a diagonal stroke or a vertical line, ¢, or a simple c. Cent amounts from 1 cent to 99 cents can be represented as one or two digits followed by the abbreviation, or as a subdivision of the base unit. The cent sign has not survived the changeover from typewriters to computer keyboards, for the US International keyboard, <Right Alt> <Shift> c. On Macintosh systems, hold ⌥ Option and press 4 on the number row, on Unix/Linux systems with a compose key, Compose+|+C is a typical sequence. The cent sign has Unicode code point, U+00A2 ¢ cent sign, usage of the cent symbol varies from one currency to another. In the United States, Canada and Mexico, the usage ¢ is more common, while in Australia, New Zealand and the eurozone, in South Africa and Ireland, only the c is used. When written in English, the cent sign follows the amount, in contrast with a currency symbol. For example, 2¢ and $0.02, or 2c, greek coins have ΛΕΠΤΟ on the obverse of the one-cent coin and ΛΕΠΤΑ on the obverse of the others. Actual usage varies depending on language, South Korean Won no fractional denomination in circulation, formerly divided into 100 jeon

6.
Mill (currency)
–
The mill or mille is a now-abstract unit of currency used sometimes in accounting. In the United States, it is a unit equivalent to 1⁄1000 of a United States dollar. In the United Kingdom it was proposed during the decades of discussion on the decimalization of the pound as a division of the pound sterling. Several other currencies used the mill, such as the Maltese lira, the term comes from the Latin millesimum, meaning thousandth part. In the United States, the term was first used by the Continental Congress in 1786, being described as the lowest money of account, the mint of Philadelphia made half cents worth 5 mills each from 1793 to 1857. Tokens in this denomination were issued by states and local governments for such uses as payment of sales tax. These were of material such as tin, aluminium, plastic or paper. Rising inflation depreciated the value of these tokens in relation to the value of their constituent materials, virtually none were made after the 1960s. Today, most Americans would refer to fractions of a cent rather than mills, for example, a gasoline price of $3.019 per gallon, if pronounced in full, would be three dollars one and nine-tenths cents. Discount coupons, such as those for grocery items, usually include in their fine print a statement such as Cash value less than 1⁄10 of 1 cent, there are also common occurrences of half-cent discounts on goods bought in quantity. However, the mill is still used when discussing billing in the electric power industry as shorthand for the lengthier 1⁄1000 of a dollar per kilowatt hour. The term is commonly used when discussing stock prices, the issuance of founders stock of a company. Property taxes are also expressed in terms of mills per dollar assessed, for instance, with a millage rate of 2.8 mills, a house with an assessment of $100,000 would be taxed =280,000 mills, or $280.00. The term is spelled mil when used in this context. The term mill is used in finance, particularly in conjunction with equity market microstructure. For example, a broker that charges 5 mils per share is taking in $5 every 1,000 shares traded, additionally, in finance the term is spelled mil. Some exchanges allow prices to be accounted in ten-thousandths of a dollar and this last digit is sometimes called a decimill or deci-mill, but no exchange officially recognizes the term. Mark Twain introduced a fictional elaboration of the mill in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, when Hank Morgan, the American time traveler, introduces decimal currency to Arthurian Britain, he has it denominated in cents, mills, and milrays, or tenths of a mill

7.
Currency symbol
–
A currency symbol is a graphic symbol used as a shorthand for a currencys name, especially in reference to amounts of money. The European Commission considers the global recognition of the euro sign € part of its success, in 2009, India launched a public competition to replace the ₨ ligature it shared with neighbouring countries. It finalised its new symbol, ₹ on 15 July 2010. It is a blend of the Latin letter R with the Devanagari letter र, when writing currency amounts the location of the symbol varies by currency. Many currencies in the English-speaking world and Latin America, place it before the amount, the Cape Verdean escudo places its symbol in the decimal separator position. The usage of many European countries, such as France, Germany, the decimal separator also follows local countries standards. For instance, the United Kingdom often uses an interpunct as the point on price stickers. Commas or decimal points are common separators used in other countries, see decimal separator for information on international standards. Older currency symbols have evolved slowly, often from previous currencies, the dollar and peso symbols originated from the mark employed to denote the Spanish real de a ocho, whereas the pound and lira symbols evolved from an L standing for libra, a Roman pound of silver. Newly invented currencies and currencies adopting new symbols have symbolism closer to their adopter, the added center bar in the real sign is meant to symbolize stability. The new Indian rupee symbol, ₹, is a combination of Latin. There are also considerations, such as the perception of the business community. For a new symbol to be used, software to render it needs to be promulgated, the EU was criticized for not considering how the euro symbol would need to be customized to work in different fonts. The original design was exceptionally wide. These two factors have led to most typefaces employing customized, font-specific versions, usually with reduced width, List of currencies List of circulating currencies Currency Symbols

8.
Dollar sign
–
The dollar sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various units of currency around the world. The symbol can interchangeably have one or two vertical strokes, note that the two-stroked version is not the same symbol as the cifrão. In common usage, the sign appears to the left of the amount specified, the best documented explanation holds that the sign evolved out of the Spanish and Spanish American scribal abbreviation pˢ for pesos. A study of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century manuscripts shows that the s gradually came to be written over the p, a variation, though less plausible, of this hypothesis derives the sign from a combination of the Greek character psi and S. There are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the symbol, some with a measure of academic acceptance. Kingdom of Sicily Denaro minted in the Kingdom in Sicily at least by 1258–1266 had what could be construed as a dollar symbol. These coins were widely circulated due to the Crusades – and specifically the Crusade that targeted Tunis, several alternative hypotheses relate specifically to the dollar sign drawn with two vertical lines. A common hypothesis holds that the sign derives from the Spanish coat of arms, in 1492, Ferdinand II of Aragon adopted the symbol of the Pillars of Hercules and added the Latin warning Non plus ultra meaning nothing further beyond, indicating this is the end of the world. But when Christopher Columbus came to America, the legend was changed to Plus ultra, the Pillars of Hercules wrapped in a banner thus became a symbol of the New World. In this example the right-hand pillar clearly resembles the dollar sign, the symbol was adopted by Charles V and was part of his coat of arms representing Spains American possessions. The symbol was later stamped on coins minted in gold and silver, the coin, also known as Spanish dollar, was the first global currency used in the entire world since the Spanish Empire was the first global Empire. These coins, depicting the pillars over two hemispheres and a small S-shaped ribbon around each, were spread throughout America, Europe and Asia. According to this, traders wrote signs that, instead of saying Spanish dollar, had this made by hand. When the US got independence from the UK, they created the American dollar, a dollar sign with two vertical lines could have started off as a monogram of USA, used on money bags issued by the United States Mint. The letters U and S superimposed resemble the historical double-stroke dollar sign, robert Morris was such a zealous patriot – known as the Financier of the Revolution in the West – that conjecture does not overstep its bounds in purporting this hypothesis as viable. A similar idea claims that the letters U and S would stand for unit of silver, referencing pieces of eight again, another hypothesis is that it derives from the symbol used on a German Thaler. This refers to the Bible, Numbers, Chapter 21, a similar symbol, constructed by superposition of S and I or J, was used to denote German Joachimsthaler. It was known in the English-speaking world by the 17th century, robert Morris was the first to use that symbol in official documents and in official communications with Oliver Pollock

9.
United States Note
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A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U. S. Having been current for more than 100 years, they were issued for longer than any form of U. S. paper money. They were known popularly as greenbacks, a name inherited from the earlier greenbacks, the Demand Notes, often termed Legal Tender Notes, they were named United States Notes by the First Legal Tender Act, which authorized them as a form of fiat currency. They were originally issued directly into circulation by the U. S. Treasury to pay expenses incurred by the Union during the American Civil War, during the next century, the legislation governing these notes was modified many times and numerous versions were issued by the Treasury. S. Treasury Seals and serial numbers in place of green ones, existing United States Notes remain valid currency in the United States, however, as no United States Notes have been issued since January 1971, they are increasingly rare in circulation. The Act of July 17,1861 authorized United States Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to raise money via the issuance of $50,000,000 in Treasury Notes payable on demand. These Demand Notes were paid to creditors directly and used to meet the payroll of soldiers in the field. While issued within the framework of Treasury Note Debt, the Demand Notes were intended to circulate as currency and were of the same size as banknotes. During December 1861, economic conditions deteriorated and a suspension of specie payment caused the government to cease redeeming the Demand Notes as coins, the beginning of 1862 found the Unions expenses increasing, and the government was having trouble funding the escalating war. Demand Notes—which were used, among other things, to pay Union soldiers—were unredeemable, congressman and Buffalo banker Elbridge G. Spaulding prepared a bill, based on the Free Banking Law of New York, that eventually became the National Banking Act of 1863. This caused tremendous controversy in Congress, as hitherto the Constitution had been interpreted as not granting the government the power to issue a paper currency. Spaulding justified the action as a means of carrying into execution the powers granted in the Constitution to raise and support armies. Initially, the emission was limited to $150,000,000 total face value between the new Legal Tender Notes and the existing Demand Notes, the Act also intended for the new notes to be used to replace the Demand Notes as soon as practical. The Demand Notes had been issued in denominations of $5, $10, and $20, in addition, notes of entirely new design were introduced in denominations of $50, $100, $500 and $1000. The Demand Notes printed promise of payment On Demand was removed, Legal tender status guaranteed that creditors would have to accept the notes despite the fact that they were not backed by gold, bank deposits, or government reserves, and had no interest. The Act did provide that the notes be receivable by the government for short term deposits at 5% interest, the rationale for these terms was that the Union government would preserve its credit-worthiness by supporting the value of its bonds by paying their interest in gold. Lastly, by making the bonds available for purchase at par in United States Notes, the limitations of the legal tender status were quite controversial. This controversy would continue until the removal of the exceptions during 1933, the largest amount of greenbacks outstanding at any one time was calculated as $447,300,203.10

10.
Spondulix
–
Spondulix is 19th-century slang for money or cash, more specifically a reasonable amount of spending money. Spondulicks, spondoolicks, spondulacks, spondulics, and spondoolics are alternative spellings, there are two views on the origin of the word. The most likely is from the Greek spondulox which is a type of shell, the Spondylus shell was used as neolithic jewellery and also an early form of money. There may also be a connection with spondylo- which means spine or vertebrae and this is referenced in an 1867 book by John Mitchell Bonnell and quotes etymologist Michael Quinions correspondence with a Doug Wilson linking the spine to piled coins. Thus, Spondulics - coin piled for counting, there is global evidence of the importance of the spondylus shell. Archaeological evidence shows people in Europe were trading the shells as jewellery as long as 5,000 years ago. Spondylus shells from the Aegean Sea were harvested and then worked into bracelets, bangles and ornaments and it is thought that the shells were also traded as an early form of currency due to their mother-of-pearl like appearance. The earliest recorded occurrence of the word appears to have been in the late 19th century in the United States, the New Oxford Dictionary of English marks the origin as US slang. However, according to the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, the slang can be traced back to the mid-1800s in England, the July 1852 edition of the Water-Cure Journal includes Gossip from Indiana by a Hoosier which complains about spending our spondulix. In 1855s Meister Karls Sketch-Book, Charles Godfrey Leland includes it in a long list of synonyms for money, spondulix is also used by 19th century American author Bret Harte in his 1891 story, A Sappho of Green Springs, MR. EDITOR, — I see you have got my poetry in, but I dont see the spondulix that oughter follow

11.
Sawbuck
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Sawbuck is a US term that may refer to a device and is a slang term for a U. S. currency bill. A sawbuck is a device for holding wood so that it may be cut into pieces, easily made in the field from rough material, it consists of an X form at each end which are joined by cross bars below the intersections of the Xs. The stock to be cut is placed in the Vs formed above the intersections of the Xs, a sawbuck is very simple to build. The five V sawbuck was designed with 10 vertical 1.2 m-long 2×4s and it was designed this way in order to cut two or more smaller pieces of firewood in rapid succession. A sawbuck should be enough to negate any kickback from the saw while cutting. Building a sawbuck that is too light could result in injury as it may tip over while cutting, especially with a chainsaw. In Canada and Britain, but not in the United States, sawbuck is also a slang term for a U. S. $10 bill, derived from the similarity between the shape of a sawbuck device and the Roman numeral X, which formerly appeared on $10 bills. A double sawbuck is a twenty dollar bill, article to build your own sawbuck

12.
Peso
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The peso was a coin that originated in Spain and became of immense importance internationally. Peso is now the name of the unit of several former Spanish colonies. Peso was a given in Spain and particularly in Hispanic America to the 8-royal coin or real de a ocho. It had a weight of 27.468 g and a millesimal fineness of 930.5. This real de a ocho or peso was minted in Spain from the mid 16th century and it was originally known as the piece of eight in English, due to the nominal value of 8 reales. The piece of eight became a coin of importance in the 17th century, especially in trade with India and the Far East. At this time, the piece of eight was produced in Mexico and Peru in a rapid and simplified manner. Instead of making a proper flan or planchet, a lump of silver of proper weight and fineness was cut off the end of a bar, then flattened out. The result was a crude, temporary coin, a lump of silver. This type of coin known as a cob in English. The Crown was entitled to a fifth of all gold and silver mined, the Quinto Real, although intended to serve only temporarily, some did remain in circulation as currency. Because of their shape and incomplete design, cobs were ideal candidates for clipping and counterfeiting. This coin was known in English as a piece of eight, then as a Spanish dollar. In French, it was a piastre and in Portuguese, a pataca or patacão, the Spanish names at various times and in various places were patacón, duro, or fuerte. Because of domestic financial and monetary problems, Spain devalued its currency by about 20% on October 14,1686. The new eight-real was known as a peso maria or peso sencillo, after this, the monetary systems of Spain and of Spanish America developed along different lines. Accounts in Spain were kept in the real of 34 maravedíes, while in Spanish America accounts continued in the silver real. After 1686, the old piece of eight remained the standard coin in the Spanish colonies, Spanish laws of 1728 and 1730 adopted modern minting techniques

13.
Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra. The capital and most populous city is San Juan and its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The islands population is approximately 3.4 million, Puerto Ricos rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African captives, and Canarian. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States appropriated Puerto Rico together with most former Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States, however, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U. S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the level and may not vote for president. However, Congress approved a constitution, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. A fifth referendum will be held in June 2017, with only Statehood, in early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with 12. 4% unemployment, the debt had been increasing during a decade long recession. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is also known in Spanish as la isla del encanto. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city. The islands name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the anglicized name was used by the US government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931, the ancient history of the archipelago known today as Puerto Rico is not well known. The scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish scholarly accounts from the colonial era constitute the basis of knowledge about them. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland

14.
Piastre
–
The piastre or piaster is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for thin metal plate, the name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant in the 16th century. These pesos, minted continually for centuries, were accepted by traders in many parts of the world. When the French colonised Indochina, they began issuing the new French Indochinese piastre, in the Ottoman Empire, successive currency reforms had reduced the value of the Ottoman piastre by the late 19th century so as to be worth about two pence sterling. Hence the name referred to two distinct kinds of coins in two distinct parts of the world, both of which had descended from the Spanish pieces of eight. Because of the values of the piastres in the Middle East. Meanwhile, in Indochina, the piastre continued into the 1950s and was renamed the riel, the kip. The term is still used in Quebec, Acadian, Franco-Manitoban. When used colloquially in this way, the term is pronounced and spelled piasse or pyahs. It was based on 120 units, a quarter of which was 30 sous, piastre was also the original French word for the United States dollar, used for example in the French text of the Louisiana Purchase. Calling the US dollar a piastre is still common among the millions of speakers of Cajun French, modern French uses dollar for this unit of currency as well. The term is used as slang for US dollars in the French-speaking Caribbean islands. Many newcomers to Canada, or Quebec mistakenly pronounce the term as pièce from pièce de monnaie, piastre is another name for kuruş, 1/100 of the Turkish new lira, as well as the old lira. The piastre is still used in Mauritius when bidding in auction sales and it is equivalent to 2 rupees. Piastra Eckfeldt, Jacob Reese, Du Bois, William Ewing, Saxton, a manual of gold and silver coins of all nations, struck within the past century. Showing their history, and legal basis, and their weight, fineness. Assay Office of the Mint. p.132

15.
Louisiana
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Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River

16.
United States one-dollar bill
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The United States one-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency. The first U. S. President, George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart, is featured on the obverse. The one-dollar bill has the oldest design of all U. S. currency currently being produced, the design seen today debuted in 1963 when it was first issued as a Federal Reserve Note. The inclusion of the motto, In God We Trust, on all currency was required by law in 1955, an individual dollar bill is also less formally known as a one, a single, a buck, a bone, and a bill. The Federal Reserve says the life of a $1 bill in circulation is 5.8 years before it is replaced because of wear. Approximately 42% of all U. S. currency produced in 2009 were one-dollar bills,1862, The first one-dollar bill was issued as a Legal Tender Note with a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln. 1869, The $1 United States Note was redesigned with a portrait of George Washington in the center, the obverse of the note also featured green and blue tinting. Although this note is technically a United States Note, TREASURY NOTE appeared on it instead of UNITED STATES NOTE,1874, The Series of 1869 United States Note was revised. Changes on the obverse included removing the green and blue tinting, adding a red floral design around the word WASHINGTON D. C. and this note was also issued as Series of 1875 and 1878. 1880, The red floral design around the words ONE DOLLAR, later versions also had blue serial numbers and a small seal moved to the left side of the note. 1886, The first woman to appear on U. S. currency, the reverse of the note featured an ornate design that occupied the entire note, excluding the borders. 1890, One-dollar Treasury or Coin Notes were issued for government purchases of silver bullion from the mining industry. The reverse featured the large word ONE in the center surrounded by a design that occupied almost the entire note. 1891, The reverse of the Series of 1890 Treasury Note was redesigned because the treasury felt that it was too busy, more open space was incorporated into the new design. 1896, The famous Educational Series Silver Certificate was issued, the entire obverse was covered with artwork of allegorical figures representing history instructing youth in front of Washington D. C. The reverse featured portraits of George and Martha Washington surrounded by a design that occupied almost the entire note. 1899, The $1 Silver Certificate was again redesigned, the obverse featured a vignette of the United States Capitol behind a bald eagle perched on an American flag. Below that were small portraits of Abraham Lincoln to the left,1917, The obverse of the $1 United States Note was changed slightly with the removal of ornamental frames that surrounded the serial numbers

17.
United States five-dollar bill
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The United States five-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency. The current $5 bill features the 16th U. S. President, Abraham Lincolns portrait on the front, all $5 bills issued today are Federal Reserve Notes. The $5 bill is sometimes nicknamed a fin, the term has German/Yiddish roots and is remotely related to the English five, but it is far less common today than it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says the life of a $5 bill in circulation is 5.5 years before it is replaced due to wear. Approximately 6% of all paper currency produced by the U. S. Treasurys Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 2009 were $5 bills. The redesigned $5 bill was unveiled on September 20,2007, new and enhanced security features make it easier to check the new $5 bill and more difficult for potential counterfeiters to reproduce. The redesigned $5 bill has, Watermarks, There are now two watermarks, a large numeral 5 watermark is located in a blank space to the right of the portrait, replacing the watermark portrait of President Lincoln found on previous bills. A second watermark — a new column of three smaller 5s — has been added and is positioned to the left of the portrait, security thread, The embedded security thread runs vertically and is now located to the right of the portrait. The letters USA followed by the number 5 in an alternating pattern are visible along the thread from both sides of the bill, the thread glows blue when held under ultraviolet light. On the back of the bill the words USA FIVE appear along one edge of the large purple 5, because they are so small, these microprinted words are hard to replicate. Infrared Ink, The back of the bill features sections of the bill that are blanked out when viewed in the infrared spectrum. This is consistent with other high-value US bills, which all feature patterns of infrared-visible stripes unique to the given denomination, bills of other world currencies, such as the Euro, also feature unique patterns visible only when viewed in this spectrum. Anti-Photocopy Circle Pattern, Small yellow 05s are printed to the left of the portrait on the front of the bill, the zeros in the 05s form a EURion constellation to prevent photocopying of the bill. Photocopy machines detect the particular pattern of circles and refuse to make a copy. Some machines make a record of the illegal photocopy attempt, which a technician may report to law enforcement. The five dollar bill lacks the Optically variable ink of higher denomination US bills, the new $5 bills remain the same size and use the same—but enhanced—portraits and historical images. The most noticeable difference is the coloring of the center of the bill. When the Lincoln Memorial was constructed the names of 48 states were engraved on it, the picture of the Lincoln Memorial on the $5 bill only contains the names of 26 states

18.
United States ten-dollar bill
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The United States ten-dollar bill is a current denomination of U. S. currency. The obverse of the features the portrait of Alexander Hamilton. The reverse features the U. S. Treasury Building, all $10 bills issued today are Federal Reserve Notes. As of December 2013, the life of a $10 bill is 4.5 years, or about 54 months. Ten-dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in yellow straps, the source of the portrait on the $10 bill is John Trumbull’s 1805 painting of Hamilton that belongs to the portrait collection of New York City Hall. The $10 bill is unique in that it is the denomination in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left. It also features one of two non-presidents on currently issued U. S. bills, the other being Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill. Hamilton is one of four people featured on U. S. paper currency who were not born in the continental United States or British America. The others were Albert Gallatin, Switzerland, George Meade, Spain, in 2015, the Treasury Secretary announced that the obverse portrait of Hamilton would be replaced by the portrait of an as yet undecided woman, starting in 2020. However, due to the popularity of Hamilton, a hit Broadway musical based on Hamiltons life, in 2016 this decision was reversed. 1861, The first $10 bill was issued as a Demand Note with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the left side of the obverse. 1862, The first $10 United States Note was issued with a design similar to the 1861 Demand Note. The Roman numeral X may represent the origin of the slang term sawbuck to mean a $10 bill. 1863, Interest Bearing Notes, featuring a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, the notes could also be spent for exactly $10. 1864, Compound Interest Treasury Notes, with a design similar to the 1863 Interest Bearing Note, were issued that grew in face value 6% compounded semi-annually. It is unknown if the note could actually be spent for $10 plus interest and this note is nicknamed a jackass note because the eagle on the front looks like a donkey when the note is turned upside down. The back of the featured a vignette of U. S. gold coins. 1875, The 1869 United States Note was revised, the blue and green tinting that was present on the obverse was removed and the design on the reverse was completely changed

19.
United States twenty-dollar bill
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The United States twenty-dollar bill is a denomination of U. S. currency. The seventh U. S. President, Andrew Jackson has been featured on the front side of the bill since 1928, while the White House is featured on the reverse side. On April 20,2016, it was announced that a new design, expected to be unveiled in 2020, as of December 2013, the average circulation life of a $20 bill is 7.9 years before it is replaced due to wear. Approximately 11% of all printed in 2009 were $20 bills. Twenty-dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in violet straps,1861, A demand note with Lady Liberty holding a sword and shield on the front, and an abstract design on the back. 1862, A note that is similar, the first $20 United States note. The back is different, with small variations extant. 1863, A gold certificate $20 note with an Eagle vignette on the face, the reverse has a $20 gold coin and various abstract elements. 1865, A national bank note with The Battle of Lexington and of Pocahontas in black,1869, A new United States note design with Alexander Hamilton on the left side of the front and Victory holding a shield and sword. 1875, As above, except with a different reverse,1878, A silver certificate $20 note with a portrait of Stephen Decatur on the right side of the face. 1882, A new gold certificate with a portrait of James Garfield on the right of the face, the back is orange and features an eagle. 1882, A new national bank note, the front is similar, but the back is different and printed in brown. 1886, A new silver certificate $20 note with Daniel Manning on the center of the face,1890, A treasury note with John Marshall on the left of the face. Two different backs exist, both with abstract designs,1902, A new national bank note. The front design features Hugh McCulloch, and the back has a vignette of an allegorical America,1905, A new gold certificate $20 note with George Washington on the center of the face. Andrew Jackson first appeared on the $20 bill in 1928, although 1928 coincides with the 100th anniversary of Jacksons election as president, it is not clear why the portrait on the bill was switched from Grover Cleveland to Jackson. In his farewell address to the nation, he cautioned the public about paper money,1918, A federal reserve bank note with Grover Cleveland on the front, and a back design similar to the 1914 Federal Reserve Note. 1928, Switched to a note with a portrait of Andrew Jackson on the face

20.
United States fifty-dollar bill
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The United States fifty-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency. The 18th U. S. President, Ulysses S. Grant, is featured on the obverse, all current-issue $50 bills are Federal Reserve Notes. As of December 2013, the life of a $50 bill in circulation is 8.5 years, or approximately 102 months. Approximately 6% of all printed in 2009 were $50 bills. They are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in brown straps,1861, Three-year $50 Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid a cent of interest per day, and thus 7. 3% annually — the so-called seven-thirties. These notes were not primarily designed to circulate, and were payable to the purchaser of the dollar bill. The obverse of the featured a bald eagle. 1862, The first circulating $50 bill was issued,1863, Both one and two year Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid 5% interest. The one-year Interest Bearing Notes featured a vignette of Alexander Hamilton to the left, the two-year notes featured allegorical figures of loyalty, and justice. 1864, Compound Interest Treasury Notes were issued, intended to circulate for three years and paying 6% interest compounded semi-annually, the obverse is similar to the Series of 1863 one-year Interest Bearing Note. 1865, Three-year Interest Bearing Notes were issued again with a slightly different bald eagle,1869, A new $50 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Henry Clay on the right and an allegorical figure holding a laurel branch on the left of the obverse. 1870, $50 National Gold Bank Notes were issued specifically for payment in gold coin by 2 national gold banks, the obverse featured vignettes of George Washington crossing the Delaware River and at Valley Forge, the reverse featured a vignette of U. S. gold coins. 1874, Another new $50 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin on the left,1878, The first $50 silver certificate was issued with a portrait of Edward Everett. The reverse was printed in black ink,1880, The Series of 1878 Silver Certificate was slightly revised. 1882, The first $50 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Silas Wright was issued, the reverse was printed in orange ink and featured a bald eagle perched atop an American flag. 1891, The obverse of the $50 Silver Certificate was slightly revised,1891, The $50 Treasury or Coin Note was issued and given for government purchases of silver bullion from the silver mining industry. The note featured a portrait of William H. Seward,1913, A new $50 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Ulysses Grant was issued. The style of the area below Grants portrait was used on small-sized notes

21.
United States one hundred-dollar bill
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The United States one hundred-dollar bill is a denomination of United States currency featuring statesman, inventor, diplomat and American founding father Benjamin Franklin on the obverse of the bill. On the reverse of the banknote is an image of Independence Hall, the $100 bill is the largest denomination that has been printed since July 13,1969, when the denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 were retired. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says the life of a $100 bill in circulation is 90 months before it is replaced due to wear and tear. The bills are also referred to as Bens, Benjamins or Franklins, in reference to the use of Benjamin Franklins portrait on the denomination, or as C-Notes. The bill is one of two denominations printed today that does not feature a President of the United States, the other is the $10 bill, featuring Alexander Hamilton. It is also the denomination today to feature a building not located in Washington. One hundred hundred-dollar bills are delivered by Federal Reserve Banks in mustard-colored straps, the Series 2009 $100 bill redesign was unveiled on April 21,2010, and was issued to the public on October 8,2013. The new bill costs 12.6 cents to produce and has a blue ribbon woven into the center of the currency with 100 and Liberty Bells, alternating,1861, Three-year 100 dollar Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid 7. 3% interest per year. These notes were not primarily designed to circulate, and were payable to the purchaser of the dollar bill. The obverse of the featured a portrait of General Winfield Scott. 1862, The first $100 United States Note was issued, variations of this note were issued that resulted in slightly different wording on the reverse, the note was issued again in Series of 1863. 1863, Both one and two and one half year Interest Bearing Notes were issued that paid 5% interest, the one-year Interest Bearing Notes featured a vignette of George Washington in the center, and allegorical figures representing The Guardian to the right and Justice to the left. The two-year notes featured a vignette of the U. S. treasury building in the center, a farmer and mechanic to the left, and sailors firing a cannon to the right. 1863, The first $100 Gold Certificates were issued with an eagle to the left. The reverse was printed in orange instead of green like all other U. S. federal government issued notes of the time. 1864, Compound Interest Treasury Notes were issued that were intended to circulate for three years and paid 6% interest compounded semi-annually, the obverse is similar to the 1863 one-year Interest Bearing Note. 1869, A new $100 United States Note was issued with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the left of the obverse, although this note is technically a United States Note, TREASURY NOTE appeared on it instead of UNITED STATES NOTE. 1870, A new $100 Gold Certificate with a portrait of Thomas Hart Benton on the side of the obverse was issued

22.
United States two-dollar bill
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The United States two-dollar bill is a current denomination of U. S. currency. The third U. S. President, Thomas Jefferson, is featured on the obverse of the note, the reverse features the painting The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. Throughout the $2 bills pre-1929 life as a note, it was issued as a United States Note, National Bank Note, silver certificate. When U. S. currency was changed to its current size, production went on until 1966, when the series was discontinued. Ten years went by before the $2 bill was reissued as a Federal Reserve Note with a new reverse design, $2 bills are seldom seen in circulation as a result of banking policies with businesses which has resulted in low production numbers due to lack of demand. The denomination of two dollars was authorized under an act, and first used in March 1862. The denomination was continuously used until the 1960s, by time the United States Note was the only remaining class of U. S. currency the two dollar bill was assigned to. In 1966 it was decided to discontinue all two dollar United States Notes from production and it has remained a current denomination since then. However, due to its use, two-dollar bills are not frequently reissued in a new series like other denominations which are printed according to demand. Though some cash registers accommodate it, its slot is used for things like checks. Some bill acceptors found in vending machines, self checkout lanes, although they usually are not handed out arbitrarily, two-dollar bills are usually available at banks. Many banks stocking $2 bills will not use them except upon specific request by the customer, the seeming rarity of a $2 bill can be attributed to its low printing numbers as a Federal Reserve Note. Hoarding of the due to lack of public knowledge of the $2 bill has resulted in very few bills seen in circulation. After its initial release, supplies of the Series 1976 $2 bill were allowed to dwindle until August 1996 when a new series dated 1995 began to be printed and this series was only printed for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Today, there is a misconception by the general public that the $2 bill is no longer in production. According to the Treasury, it receives many letters asking why the $2 bill is no longer in circulation, in response, the Treasury stated, The $2 bill remains one of our circulating currency denominations. As of April 30,2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide. Another popular misconception is that the average $2 bill is more than its face value

23.
Coins of the United States dollar
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Coins of the United States dollar were first minted in 1792. New coins have been produced annually since then and they make up an aspect of the United States currency system. Today, circulating coins exist in denominations of 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, also minted are bullion and commemorative coins. All of these are produced by the United States Mint, the coins are then sold to Federal Reserve Banks which in turn are responsible for putting coins into circulation and withdrawing them as demanded by the countrys economy. Today four mints operate in the United States producing billions of coins each year, the main mint is the Philadelphia Mint, which produces circulating coinage, mint sets and some commemorative coins. The Denver Mint also produces circulating coinage, mint sets and commemoratives, the San Francisco Mint produces regular and silver proof coinage, and produced circulating coinage until the 1970s. The West Point Mint produces bullion coinage, Philadelphia and Denver produce the dies used at all of the mints. The proof and mint sets are manufactured each year and contain examples of all of the circulating coins. The producing mint of each coin may be identified, as most coins bear a mint mark. The identifying letter of the mint can be found on the front side of most coins, unmarked coins are issued by the Philadelphia mint. The mass and composition of the cent changed to the current copper plated zinc core in 1982, both types were minted in 1982 with no distinguishing mark. Cents minted in 1943 were struck on planchets punched from zinc coated steel which left the resulting edges uncoated and this caused many of these coins to rust. These steel pennies are not likely to be found in circulation today, the wheat cent was mainstream and common during its time. Some dates are rare, but many can still be found in circulation, nickels produced from mid-1942 through 1945 were manufactured from 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. This allowed the saved nickel metal to be shifted to production of military supplies during World War II. Few of these are found in circulation. Prior to 1965 and passage of the Coinage Act of 1965 the composition of the dime, quarter, half-dollar and dollar coins was 90% silver, the half-dollar continued to be minted in a 40% silver-clad composition between 1965 and 1970. Dimes and quarters from before 1965 and half-dollars from before 1971 are generally not in circulation due to being removed for their silver content, in 1975 and 1976 bicentennial coinage was minted

24.
Penny (United States coin)
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The United States one-cent coin often called penny, is a unit of currency equaling one-hundredth of a United States dollar. Its obverse has featured the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, from 1959 to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincolns 200th birthday and a new, the coin is 0.75 inches in diameter and 0.0598 inches in thickness. Its weight has varied, depending upon the composition of metals used in its production, Mints official name for the coin is cent and the U. S. Treasurys official name is one cent piece. The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, in American English, pennies is the plural form. Although the coins abolition has been proposed because it is now very little. As of 2015, based on the U. S. Mint Annual Report released for 2014, it costs the U. S. Mint 1.67 cents to one cent because of the cost of materials, production. This figure includes the Mints fixed components for distribution and fabrication, fixed costs and overhead would have to be absorbed by other circulating coins without the penny. The loss from producing the one cent coin in the United States for the year of 2013 was $55,000,000 and this was a slight decrease from 2012, the year before, which had a production loss of $58,000,000. In honor of Lincolns 200th anniversary, special 2009 cents were minted for collectors in the composition as the 1909 coins. In 1943, at the peak of World War II, zinc-coated steel cents were made for a time because of war demands for copper. A few copper cents from 1943 were produced from the 1942 planchets remaining in the bins, similarly, some 1944 steel cents have been confirmed. During the early 1970s, the price of copper rose to the point where the cent contained almost one cents worth of copper and this led the Mint to test alternative metals, including aluminum and bronze-clad steel. Aluminum was chosen, and over 1.5 million of these pennies were struck, One aluminum cent was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The cents composition was changed in 1982 because the value of the copper in the coin started to rise above one cent, some 1982 pennies used the 97. 5% zinc composition, while others used the 95% copper composition. With the exception of 2009 bicentennial cents minted specifically for collectors, in Fiscal Year 2013, the average one-cent piece minted cost the U. S. Mint 1.83 cents, down from 2.41 cents apiece in FY2011. The bronze and copper cents can be distinguished from the newer zinc cents by dropping the coins on a solid surface, the predominantly copper coins produce a higher-pitched ringing sound, while the zinc coins make a lower-pitched clunk. The coin has gone through several designs over its time frame

25.
Nickel (United States coin)
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A nickel, in American usage, is a five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint. Composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel, the piece has been issued since 1866 and its diameter is.835 inches and its thickness is.077 inches. The silver half dime, equal to five cents, had issued since the 1790s. The American Civil War caused economic hardship, driving gold and silver from circulation, in response, in place of low-value coins, the government at first issued paper currency. In 1865, Congress abolished the five-cent fractional currency note after Spencer M. Clark, head of the Currency Bureau, the initial design of the Shield nickel was struck from 1866 until 1883, then was replaced by the Liberty Head nickel. The Buffalo nickel was introduced in 1913 as part of a drive to increase the beauty of American coinage, in 1938, in 2004 and 2005, special designs in honor of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were issued. In 2006, the Mint reverted to using Jefferson nickel designer Felix Schlags original reverse, although a new obverse, by Jamie Franki, was substituted. As of the end of FY2013, it cost more than nine cents to produce a nickel, the silver half disme was one of the denominations prescribed by the Mint Act of 1792, its weight and fineness were set by law. By legend, President Washington supplied silverware from his home, Mount Vernon, in 1793, the newly established Philadelphia Mint began striking cents and half cents. Coinage of precious metal was delayed, Congress required the assayer and chief coiner to each post a security bond of $10,000, a huge sum in 1793. In 1794, Congress lowered the chief coiners bond to $5,000, subsequently, silver coinage began that year. The half dime was struck to various designs by Mint Engraver Robert Scot from 1794 until 1805, though none were dated 1798,1799, in response, in 1804 the US stopped striking silver dollars, issuance of the half dime was discontinued from 1805 until 1829. Beginning in 1829, the silver five-cent piece was struck, beginning in 1837. In 1851, it ceased to be the smallest US silver coin as a three cent piece was issued by the Mint, although specie was hoarded or exported, the copper-nickel cent, then the only base metal denomination being struck, also vanished. In 1864, Congress began the process of restoring coins to circulation by abolishing the three-cent note and authorizing bronze cents and two-cent pieces, with low intrinsic values and these new coins initially proved popular, though the two-cent piece soon faded from circulation. On March 3,1865, Congress passed legislation authorizing the Mint to strike three-cent pieces of 75% copper, in 1864, Congress authorized a third series of fractional currency notes. Clark kept his job only because of the intervention of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. In his 1865 report, Pollock wrote, From this nickel alloy, a coin for the denomination of five cents, only until the resumption of specie payments

26.
Quarter (United States coin)
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The quarter, short for quarter dollar, is a United States coin worth 25 cents, one-fourth of a dollar. It has a diameter of.955 inches and a thickness of.069 inches, the coin sports the profile of George Washington on its obverse and its reverse design has changed frequently. It has been produced on and off since 1796, and consistently from 1831 onward, the choice of 1⁄4 as a denomination—as opposed to the 1⁄5 more common elsewhere—originated with the practice of dividing Spanish milled dollars into eight wedge-shaped segments. At one time o bits was a nickname for a quarter. The current clad version is two layers of cupronickel, 75% copper and 25% nickel, on a core of pure copper, the total composition of the coin is 8. 33% nickel, with the remainder copper. It weighs 0.2000 avoirdupois oz, 1/80th of a pound,0.1823 troy oz, the diameter is 0.955 inches, and the width of 0.069 inches. The coin has a 0. 069-inch reeded edge, owing to the introduction of the clad quarter in 1965, it was occasionally called a Johnson Sandwich after Lyndon B. Johnson, the U. S. President at the time and it currently costs 11.14 cents to produce each coin. The U. S. Mint began producing silver quarters again in 1992 for inclusion in the annual Silver Proof set, early quarters were slightly larger in diameter and thinner than the current coin. The current regular issue coin is the George Washington quarter, showing George Washington on the front, the reverse featured an eagle prior to the 199950 State Quarters Program. The Washington quarter was designed by John Flanagan and it was initially issued as a circulating commemorative, but was made a regular issue coin in 1934. The bill passed through the Senate and was signed into legislation by President Bush on December 27,2007, the typeface used in the state quarter series varies a bit from one state to another, but is generally derived from Albertus. On June 7,2006, a bill titled Americas Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008 was introduced to the House of Representatives, on December 23,2008, President George W. Bush signed the bill into law. The America the Beautiful Quarters program began in 2010 and will continue for 12 years. S. S and they were issued from 1932 through 1964. The current rarities for the Washington Quarter silver series are, Branch Mintmarks are D = Denver, coins without mintmarks are all made at the main Mint in Philadelphia. This is not due to their mintages, but rather because they are harder to find in high grades, many of these coins are worth only melt value in low grades. Other coins in the above list are expensive because of their extremely low mintages, such as the 1932 Denver and San Francisco issues. The overstruck mintmark issues are scarce and expensive, especially in the higher grades

27.
Half dollar (United States coin)
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It has been produced every year since the conception of the United States Mint in 1794. The only other U. S. coin that has been minted as consistently is the cent, though not commonly used today, half dollar coins have a long history of heavy use alongside other denominations of coinage, but have faded out of general circulation for many reasons. They were produced in large quantities until the year 2002. As a result of its usage, a large amount of pre-2002 half dollars remain in Federal Reserve vaults. Presently, collector half dollars can be ordered straight from the U. S. Mint, half dollar coins saw heavy use, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century. For many years, they were used in casinos. Additionally, some concession vendors at sporting events distribute half dollar coins as change for convenience, by the early 1960s, the rising price of silver was nearing the point where the bullion value of U. S. silver coins would exceed face value. In 1965, the U. S. introduced layered composition coins made of a copper core laminated between two outer faces. The silver content of dimes and quarters was eliminated, but the Kennedy half dollar composition still contained silver from 1965 to 1970, the 1964 Kennedy half dollars were removed from circulation by the public for sentimental reasons. The quarter took over the role as the highest-value component of change. Most coins enter circulation through the drawers of businesses. Few businesses stock their change drawers with half dollars, and many banks do not stock them or hand out as normal business practice. If and when the supply runs low, the mint will again fill orders for circulation half dollars. It took about 18 years for the large stockpile of a similar low-demand circulation coin. Modern-date half dollars can be purchased in sets, mint sets, rolls, and bags from the U. S. Mint. All collector issues since 2001 have had much lower mintages than in previous years, although intended only for collectors, these post-2001 half dollars sometimes find their way into circulation. On December 1,1794, the first half dollars, approximately 5,300 pieces, were delivered, another 18,000 were produced in January 1795 using dies of 1794, to save the expense of making new ones. Another 30,000 pieces were struck by the end of 1801, the coin had the Heraldic Eagle, based on the Great Seal of the United States on the reverse

28.
Dollar coin (United States)
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The dollar coin is a United States coin worth one United States dollar. It is the second largest American coin currently minted in terms of size, with a diameter of 1.043 inches. Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794. The term silver dollar is used for any large white metal coin issued by the United States with a face value of one dollar. While true Gold dollars are no longer minted, the Sacagawea, Dollar coins have never been very popular in the United States since the removal of specie coins from circulation. Despite efforts by the government to promote their use, such as the Presidential $1 Coin Program, the gold dollar was a tiny coin measuring only 13 mm making it difficult to grasp and easy to lose, a serious problem when a dollar was almost a days wage. Dollar coins have found little acceptance in circulation in the United States since the early 20th century. This contrasts with currencies of most other developed countries, where denominations of similar value exist only in coin, a major reason for the lack of acceptance of dollar coins is their similarity in size to a quarter. Whatever the reason, a U. S. Mint official claimed in a November 2012 meeting that most of 2.4 billion dollar coins minted in the five years were not in circulation. The dollar coin is so unpopular with the Federal Reserve that it has contrived barriers to its distribution, the mint marks are C, CC, D, D, O, P, S, and W. C, Charlotte, North Carolina. Before the American Revolutionary War, coins from many European nations circulated freely in the American colonies, chief among these was the Spanish silver dollar coins minted in Mexico and other colonies with silver mined from Central and South American mines. These coins, along others of similar size and value, were in use throughout the colonies, and later the United States. In 1776, the Continental Congress authorized plans to produce a coin to prop up the rapidly failing Continental—the first attempt by the fledgling U. S. at paper currency. Several examples were struck in brass, pewter, and silver, the Continental Dollar bears a date of 1776, and while its true denomination is not known, it is generally the size of later dollars, and the name has stuck. The failure of the Continental exacerbated a distrust of paper money among both politicians and the populace at large, the Coinage Act of 1792 authorized the production of dollar coins from silver. The United States Mint produced silver coins from 1794 to 1803. The first silver dollars, precisely 1,758 of them, were coined on October 15,1794 and were delivered to Mint Director David Rittenhouse for distribution to dignitaries as souvenirs. Thereafter, until 1804, they were struck in varying quantities, there are two obverse designs, Flowing Hair and Draped Bust

29.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

30.
East Timor
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East Timor or Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a sovereign state in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse. The countrys size is about 15,410 km2, nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesias 27th province the following year. The Indonesian occupation of East Timor was characterised by a highly violent decades-long conflict between separatist groups and the Indonesian military, in 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory. East Timor became the first new state of the 21st century on 20 May 2002 and joined the United Nations. In 2011, East Timor announced its intention to gain status in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by applying to become its eleventh member. It is one of two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia, the other being the Philippines. In Indonesian, the country is called Timor Timur, thus using the Portuguese name for the island followed by the word for east, the official names under the Constitution are Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in English, República Democrática de Timor-Leste in Portuguese and Repúblika Demokrátika Timór-Leste in Tetum. Humans first settled in East Timor 42,000 years ago, descendants of at least three waves of migration are believed still to live in East Timor. The first is described by anthropologists as people of the Veddo-Australoid type, around 3000 BC, a second migration brought Melanesians. The earlier Veddo-Australoid peoples withdrew at this time to the mountainous interior, finally, proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina. Hakka traders are among those descended from this final group, Timorese origin myths tell of ancestors that sailed around the eastern end of Timor arriving on land in the south. Some stories recount Timorese ancestors journeying from the Malay Peninsula or the Minangkabau highlands of Sumatra, austronesians migrated to Timor, and are thought to be associated with the development of agriculture on the island. Thirdly, Proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina, before European colonialism, Timor was included in Chinese and Indian trading networks, and in the 14th century was an exporter of aromatic sandalwood, slaves, honey, and wax. It was the abundance of sandalwood in Timor that attracted European explorers to the island in the early 16th century. During that time, European explorers reported that the island had a number of small chiefdoms or princedoms, the Portuguese established outposts in Timor and Maluku. Effective European occupation of a part of the territory began in 1769, when the city of Dili was founded. For the Portuguese, East Timor remained little more than a trading post until the late nineteenth century, with minimal investment in infrastructure, health

31.
Ecuador
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Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres west of the mainland. What is now Ecuador was home to a variety of Amerindian groups that were incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century. The territory was colonized by Spain during the 16th century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, Spanish is the official language and is spoken by a majority of the population, though 13 Amerindian languages are also recognized, including Quichua and Shuar. The capital city is Quito, while the largest city is Guayaquil, in reflection of the countrys rich cultural heritage, the historical center of Quito was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. Cuenca, the third-largest city, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999 as an outstanding example of a planned. Ecuador has an economy that is highly dependent on commodities, namely petroleum. The country is classified as a medium-income country, Ecuador is a democratic presidential republic. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, Ecuador is also known for its rich ecology, hosting many endemic plants and animals, such as those of the Galápagos Islands. It is one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, various peoples had settled in the area of the future Ecuador before the arrival of the Incas. They developed different languages while emerging as unique ethnic groups, even though their languages were unrelated, these groups developed similar groups of cultures, each based in different environments. Over time these groups began to interact and intermingle with each other so that groups of families in one area became one community or tribe, with a similar language and culture. Many civilizations arose in Ecuador, such as the Valdivia Culture and Machalilla Culture on the coast, the Quitus, each civilization developed its own distinctive architecture, pottery, and religious interests. Eventually, through wars and marriage alliances of their leaders, a group of nations formed confederations, one region consolidated under a confederation called the Shyris, which exercised organized trading and bartering between the different regions. Its political and military came under the rule of the Duchicela blood-line. The native confederations that gave them the most problems were deported to distant areas of Peru, Bolivia, similarly, a number of loyal Inca subjects from Peru and Bolivia were brought to Ecuador to prevent rebellion. Thus, the region of highland Ecuador became part of the Inca Empire in 1463 sharing the same language, in contrast, when the Incas made incursions into coastal Ecuador and the eastern Amazon jungles of Ecuador, they found both the environment and indigenous people more hostile. Moreover, when the Incas tried to subdue them, these indigenous people withdrew to the interior, as a result, Inca expansion into the Amazon basin and the Pacific coast of Ecuador was hampered. The indigenous people of the Amazon jungle and coastal Ecuador remained relatively autonomous until the Spanish soldiers, the Amazonian people and the Cayapas of Coastal Ecuador were the only groups to resist Inca and Spanish domination, maintaining their language and culture well into the 21st century

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El Salvador
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El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. El Salvadors capital and largest city is San Salvador, as of 2015, the country had a population of approximately 6.38 million, consisting largely of Mestizos of European and Indigenous American descent. El Salvador was for centuries inhabited by several Mesoamerican nations, especially the Cuzcatlecs, as well as the Lenca, in the early 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. In 1821, the country achieved independence from Spain as part of the First Mexican Empire, from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, El Salvador endured chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. The conflict ended with a settlement that established a multiparty constitutional republic. El Salvador has since reduced its dependence on coffee and embarked on diversifying the economy by opening up trade and financial links, the colón, the official currency of El Salvador since 1892, was replaced by the U. S. dollar in 2001. As of 2010, El Salvador ranks 12th among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, however, the country continues to struggle with high rates of poverty, inequality, and crime. Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado named the new province for Jesus Christ – El Salvador, the full name was Provincia De Nuestro Señor Jesus Cristo, El Salvador Del Mundo, which was subsequently abbreviated to El Salvador. Tomayate is a site located on the banks of the river of the same name in the municipality of Apopa. The site has produced abundant Salvadoran megafauna fossils belonging to the Pleistocene epoch, at the same time, it is considered the richest vertebrate paleontological site in Central America and one of the largest accumulations of proboscideans in the Americas. Sophisticated civilization in El Salvador dates to its settlement by the indigenous Lenca people, theirs was the first, the Lenca were succeeded by the Olmecs, who eventually also disappeared, leaving their monumental architecture in the form of the pyramids still extant in western El Salvador. The Maya arrived and settled in place of the Olmecs, the Pipil were the last indigenous people to arrive in El Salvador. They called their territory Kuskatan, a Pipil word meaning The Place of Precious Jewels, backformed into Classical Nahuatl Cōzcatlān, the people of El Salvador today are referred to as Salvadoran, while the term Cuzcatleco is commonly used to identify someone of Salvadoran heritage. In pre-Columbian times, the country was inhabited by various other indigenous peoples, including the Lenca. Cuzcatlan was the domain until the Spanish conquest. Since El Salvador resided on the edge of the Maya Civilization. However, it is agreed that Mayas likely occupied the areas around Lago de Guija. Other ruins such as Tazumal, Joya de Cerén and San Andrés may have built by the Pipil or the Maya or possibly both

33.
Federated States of Micronesia
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Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km just north of the equator. While the FSMs total land area is small, it occupies more than 2,600,000 km2 of the Pacific Ocean. The capital is Palikir, located on Pohnpei Island, while the largest city is Weno, each of its four states is centered on one or more main high islands, and all but Kosrae include numerous outlying atolls. The Federated States of Micronesia is spread across part of the Caroline Islands in the region of Micronesia. The term Micronesia may refer to the Federated States or to the region as a whole, the FSM was formerly a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations Trust Territory under U. S. Other neighboring island entities, and also members of the TTPI, formulated their own constitutional governments and became the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The FSM has a seat in the United Nations, the ancestors of the Micronesians settled over four thousand years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system eventually evolved into a centralized economic. Nan Madol, consisting of a series of artificial islands linked by a network of canals, is often called the Venice of the Pacific. European explorers—first the Portuguese in search of the Spice Islands and then the Spanish—reached the Carolines in the sixteenth century, the Spanish incorporated the archipelago to the Spanish East Indies and in the 19th century established a number of outposts and missions. In 1887, they founded the town of Santiago de la Ascension in what today is Kolonia on the island of Pohnpei, following defeat in the Spanish–American War, the Spanish sold the archipelago to Germany in 1899 under the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899. Germany incorporated it into German New Guinea, during World War I, it was captured by Japan. Following the war, the League of Nations awarded a mandate for Japan to administer the islands as part of the South Pacific Mandate, during World War II, a significant portion of the Japanese fleet was based in Truk Lagoon. In February 1944, Operation Hailstone, one of the most important naval battles of the war, took place at Truk, in which many Japanese support vessels and aircraft were destroyed. On May 10,1979, four of the Trust Territory districts ratified a new constitution to become the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands chose not to participate. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States, independence was formally concluded under international law in 1990, when the United Nations officially ended the Trusteeship status pursuant to Security Council Resolution 683. The Compact was renewed in 2004, the Federated States of Micronesia is governed by the 1979 constitution, which guarantees fundamental human rights and establishes a separation of governmental powers. The unicameral Congress has fourteen members elected by popular vote, four senators—one from each state—serve four-year terms, the remaining ten senators represent single-member districts based on population, and serve two-year terms

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Marshall Islands
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The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the island group of Micronesia. The countrys population of 53,158 people is spread out over 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the south-east, about 27,797 of the islanders live on Majuro, which contains the capital. Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC, Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed, the islands derive their name from British explorer John Marshall, who visited in 1788. The islands were known by the inhabitants as jolet jen Anij. The European powers recognized Spanish sovereignty over the islands in 1874 and they had been part of the Spanish East Indies formally since 1528. Later, Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1884, in World War I the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands, which in 1919 the League of Nations combined with other former German territories to form the South Pacific Mandate. In World War II, the United States conquered the islands in the Gilbert, along with other Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands governed by the US. Self-government was achieved in 1979, and full sovereignty in 1986, Marshall Islands has been a United Nations member state since 1991. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency, the majority of the citizens of the Marshall Islands are of Marshallese descent, though there are small numbers of immigrants from the United States, China, Philippines, and other Pacific islands. The two official languages are Marshallese, which is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and English, micronesians settled the Marshall Islands in the 2nd millennium BC, but there are no historical or oral records of that period. Over time, the Marshall Island people learned to navigate over long distances by canoe using traditional stick charts. Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar was the first European to see the islands in 1526, commanding the ship Santa Maria de la Victoria, on August 21, he sighted an island at 14°N that he named San Bartolome. On September 21,1529, Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón commanded the Spanish ship Florida and he stood off a group of islands from which local inhabitants hurled stones at his ship. These islands, which he named Los Pintados, may have been Ujelang, on October 1, he found another group of islands where he went ashore for eight days, exchanged gifts with the local inhabitants and took on water. These islands, which he named Los Jardines, may have been Enewetak or Bikini Atoll

35.
Palau
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Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. The country contains approximately 250 islands, forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands in Micronesia, the most populous island is Koror. The capital Ngerulmud is located on the island of Babeldaob. Palau shares maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia, the country was originally settled approximately 3,000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines and sustained a Negrito population until around 900 years ago. The islands were first explored by Europeans in the 16th century, the Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, politically, Palau is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, which provides defense, funding, and access to social services. Legislative power is concentrated in the bicameral Palau National Congress, Palaus economy is based mainly on tourism, subsistence agriculture and fishing, with a significant portion of gross national product derived from foreign aid. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency, the islands culture mixes Micronesian, Melanesian, Asian, and Western elements. Ethnic Palauans, the majority of the population, are of mixed Micronesian, Melanesian, a smaller proportion of the population is descended from Japanese and Filipino settlers. The countrys two official languages are Palauan and English, with Japanese, Sonsorolese, and Tobian recognised as regional languages. The name for the islands in the Palauan language, Belau, likely derives from either the Palauan word for village, beluu, or from aibebelau, the name Palau entered the English language from the Spanish Los Palaos, via the German Palau. An archaic name for the islands in English was the Pelew Islands and it should not be confused with Pulau, which is a Malay word meaning island. Palau was originally settled between the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, most likely from the Austronesia or Indonesia, the islands sustained a population of short-statured Negrito or Pygmy people until the 12th century, when they were replaced. The modern population, judging by its language, may have come from the Sunda Islands, however, the Spanish presence only began to express with evangelization, began at the end of 17th century, and its dominance began to take shape in the 18th century. The conscious discovery of Palau came a century later in 1697 and they were interviewed by the Czech missionary Paul Klein on 28 December 1696. Klein was able to draw the first map of Palau based on the Palauans representation of their home islands that made with an arrangement of 87 pebbles on the beach

36.
Panama
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Panama, officially called the Republic of Panama, is a country usually considered to be entirely in North America or Central America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, the capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the countrys 4.1 million people. Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes prior to settlement by the Spanish in the 16th century. Panama broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, when Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined, eventually becoming the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, in 1977 an agreement was signed for the total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the 20th century, which culminated on 31 December 1999. Revenue from canal tolls continues to represent a significant portion of Panamas GDP, although commerce, banking, in 2015 Panama ranked 60th in the world in terms of the Human Development Index. Since 2010, Panama remains the second most competitive economy in Latin America, covering around 40 percent of its land area, Panamas jungles are home to an abundance of tropical plants and animals – some of them to be found nowhere else on the planet. There are several theories about the origin of the name Panama, some believe that the country was named after a commonly found species of tree. Others believe that the first settlers arrived in Panama in August, when butterflies abound, the best-known version is that a fishing village and its nearby beach bore the name Panamá, which meant an abundance of fish. Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán, while exploring the Pacific side in 1515, in 1517 Don Gaspar De Espinosa, a Spanish lieutenant, decided to settle a post there. In 1519 Pedrarias Dávila decided to establish the Empires Pacific city in this site, the new settlement replaced Santa María La Antigua del Darién, which had lost its function within the Crowns global plan after the beginning of the Spanish exploitation of the riches in the Pacific. Blending all of the above together, Panamanians believe in general that the word Panama means abundance of fish and this is the official definition given in social studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education in Panama. However, others believe the word Panama comes from the Kuna word bannaba which means distant or far away, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the known inhabitants of Panama included the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes. These people have disappeared, as they had no immunity from European infectious diseases. The earliest discovered artifacts of indigenous peoples in Panama include Paleo-Indian projectile points, later central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making in the Americas, for example the cultures at Monagrillo, which date back to 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations best known through their spectacular burials at the Monagrillo archaeological site, the monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles site are also important traces of these ancient isthmian cultures. Before Europeans arrived Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, the largest group were the Cueva. The size of the population of the isthmus at the time of European colonization is uncertain

37.
Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west and southwest, Zambia to the northwest, although it does not border Namibia, less than 200 metres of the Zambezi River separates it from that country. The capital and largest city is Harare, a country of roughly 13 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most commonly used. Since the 11th century, present-day Zimbabwe has been the site of several organised states and kingdoms as well as a route for migration. The British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes first demarcated the present territory during the 1890s, in 1965, the conservative white minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. Zimbabwe then rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations—which it withdrew from in 2003 and it is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU-PF party won the following the end of white minority rule. Under Mugabes authoritarian regime, the security apparatus has dominated the country. Mugabe has maintained the revolutionary socialist rhetoric from the Cold War era, the name Zimbabwe stems from a Shona term for Great Zimbabwe, an ancient ruined city in the countrys south-east whose remains are now a protected site. Two different theories address the origin of the word, many sources hold that Zimbabwe derives from dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as large houses of stone. The Karanga-speaking Shona people live around Great Zimbabwe in the province of Masvingo. Zimbabwe was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia, a further alternative, put forward by nationalists in Matabeleland, had been Matopos, referring to the Matopos Hills to the south of Bulawayo. In a 2001 interview, black nationalist Edson Zvobgo recalled that Mawema mentioned the name during a rally, and it caught hold. The black nationalist factions subsequently used the name the during the Second Chimurenga campaigns against the Rhodesian government during the Rhodesian Bush War of 1964-1979, major factions in this camp included the Zimbabwe African National Union, and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. Proto-Shona-speaking societies first emerged in the middle Limpopo valley in the 9th century before moving on to the Zimbabwean highlands, the Zimbabwean plateau eventually became the centre of subsequent Shona states, beginning around the 10th century. Around the early 10th century, trade developed with Arab merchants on the Indian Ocean coast, the main archaeological site uses a unique dry stone architecture. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first in a series of sophisticated trade states developed in Zimbabwe by the time of the first European explorers from Portugal and they traded in gold, ivory, and copper for cloth and glass. From about 1300 until 1600, Mapungubwe was eclipsed by the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and this Shona state further refined and expanded upon Mapungubwes stone architecture, which survives to this day at the ruins of the kingdoms capital of Great Zimbabwe

38.
British Virgin Islands
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The British Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands, are a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the islands constitute the US Virgin Islands. The 150-square-kilometre British Virgin Islands consist of the islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada. About 15 of the islands are inhabited, the capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island, which is about 20 km long and 5 km wide. The islands had a population of about 28,000 at the 2010 Census, of whom approximately 23,500 lived on Tortola, British Virgin Islanders are classed as British Overseas Territories citizens and since 2002 have had an entitlement to take up full UK citizenship. Although the territory is not part of the European Union and not directly subject to EU law, the official name of the territory is still simply the Virgin Islands, but the prefix British is often used. This is commonly believed to distinguish it from the neighbouring American territory which changed its name from the Danish West Indies to Virgin Islands of the United States in 1917. Moreover, the territorys Constitutional Commission has expressed the view that every effort should be made to encourage the use of the name Virgin Islands. In 1968 the British Government issued a memorandum requiring that the stamps in the territory should say British Virgin Islands. This was likely to prevent confusion following on from the adoption of US currency in the Territory in 1959, the Virgin Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC. The Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, the first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, shortened to Las Vírgenes, there is no record of any native Amerindian population in the British Virgin Islands during this period, although the native population on nearby Saint Croix was decimated. The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island of Tortola by 1648, in 1672, the English captured Tortola from the Dutch, and the English annexation of Anegada and Virgin Gorda followed in 1680. Meanwhile, over the period 1672–1733, the Danish gained control of the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John. The British islands were considered principally a strategic possession, but were planted when economic conditions were particularly favourable, the British introduced sugar cane which was to become the main crop and source of foreign trade, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar cane plantations. In 1917, the United States purchased St. John, St. Thomas, the British Virgin Islands were administered variously as part of the British Leeward Islands or with St. Kitts and Nevis, with an administrator representing the British Government on the islands. The islands gained separate status in 1960 and became autonomous in 1967. Since the 1960s, the islands have diversified away from their traditionally agriculture-based economy towards tourism and financial services and they are located in the Virgin Islands archipelago, a few miles east of the US Virgin Islands

39.
Caribbean Netherlands
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The Caribbean Netherlands are the three special municipalities of the Netherlands that are located in the Caribbean Sea. They consist of the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, in legislation, the three islands are also known as the BES islands. The islands are classified as public bodies in the Netherlands and as overseas countries and territories of the European Union, thus. Bonaire is one of the Leeward Antilles and is located close to the coast of Venezuela, Sint Eustatius and Saba are in the main Lesser Antilles group and are located south of Sint Maarten and northwest of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The three islands gained their current status following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010, at the same time, the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island of Aruba is also a constituent country of the Kingdom located in the Caribbean, the term Dutch Caribbean may refer to the three special municipalities, but may also refer to all of the Caribbean islands within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The population of the BES islands is 21,000 and their total area is 328 square kilometres. The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands first voted in Dutch general elections in 2012, the special municipalities carry many of the functions normally performed by Dutch municipalities. The executive power rests with the Governing Council headed by a Lieutenant governor, the main democratic body is the island council. Dutch citizens of three islands are entitled to vote in Dutch national and in European elections. Officially the islands are classed in Dutch law as being openbare lichamen, for this reason, they are called special municipalities. For many Dutch laws there is a special BES version, for example, social security is not on the same level as it is in the European Netherlands. This agency was established as the Regional Service Center in 2008, the current director is Jan Helmond. The Representative for the bodies of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba represents the Government of the Netherlands on the islands. The current representative is Gilbert Isabella, the islands do not form part of the European Union and instead constitute overseas countries and territories of the Union, to which special provisions apply. In June 2008, the Dutch government published a survey of the legal, the position of the islands will be reviewed after a five-year transitional period, which began with the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in October 2010. The Caribbean Netherlands form part of the Lesser Antilles, within this island group, Bonaire is part of the ABC islands within the Leeward Antilles island chain off the Venezuelan coast. The Leeward Antilles have a volcanic and coral origin

40.
Turks and Caicos Islands
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They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola and the other Antilles archipelago islands. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, the islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres. The first recorded European sighting of the now known as the Turks. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control, for many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, in August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections, the Turks and Caicos Islands are named after the Turks cap cactus, and the Lucayan term caya hico, meaning string of islands. The first inhabitants of the islands were Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who crossed over from Hispaniola sometime from AD500 to 800, together with Taino who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. Around 1200, the Turks and Caicos Islands were resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola, the southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were completely depopulated by about 1513, and remained so until the 17th century. The first European documented to sight the islands was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to British control, but none of the three powers ever established any settlements. Bermudian salt collectors settled the Turks Islands around 1680, for several decades around the turn of the 18th century, the islands became popular pirate hideouts. From 1765–1783, the islands were under French occupation, and again after the French captured the archipelago in 1783, after the American War of Independence, many Loyalists fled to British Caribbean colonies, in 1783, they were the first settlers on the Caicos Islands. They developed cotton as an important cash crop, but it was superseded by the development of the salt industry, in 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas. The processing of sea salt was developed as an important export product from the West Indies. Salt continued to be an export product into the nineteenth century. In 1807, Britain prohibited the trade and, in 1833. British ships sometimes intercepted slave traders in the Caribbean, and some ships were wrecked off the coast of these islands, in 1837, the Esperanza, a Portuguese slaver, was wrecked off East Caicos, one of the larger islands. While the crew and 220 captive Africans survived the shipwreck,18 Africans died before the survivors were taken to Nassau, Africans from this ship may have been among the 189 liberated Africans whom the British colonists settled in the Turks and Caicos from 1833 to 1840

41.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana

42.
Angola
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Angola /æŋˈɡoʊlə/, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to west. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo, the capital and largest city of Angola is Luanda. In the 19th century, European settlers slowly and hesitantly began to themselves in the interior. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 20th century, following resistance by groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda. Independence was achieved in 1975 under a communist one-party state backed by the Soviet Union, however, the country soon descended into an even lengthier civil war that lasted until 2002. It has since become a relatively stable presidential republic. Angola has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy is among the fastest growing in the world, Angolas economic growth is highly uneven, with the majority of the nations wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population. Angola is a state of the United Nations, OPEC, African Union, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Latin Union. A highly multiethnic country, Angolas 25.8 million people span various tribal groups, customs, Angolan culture reflects centuries of Portuguese rule, namely in the predominance of the Portuguese language and the Catholic Church, combined with diverse indigenous influences. The name Angola comes from the Portuguese colonial name Reino de Angola, the toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title ngola held by the kings of Ndongo. Ndongo was a kingdom in the highlands, between the Kwanza and Lukala Rivers, nominally tributary to the king of Kongo but which was seeking greater independence during the 16th century, modern Angola was populated predominantly by nomadic Khoi and San prior to the first Bantu migrations. The Khoi and San peoples were neither pastoralists nor cultivators, following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and they were displaced by Bantu peoples arriving from the north, some of whom likely originated in northwestern Nigeria. Bantu speakers introduced the cultivation of bananas and taro, as well as large herds, to Angolas central highlands. During this time, the Bantu established a number of entities in most of what today comprises Angola. To its south lay the Kingdom of Ndongo, from which the area of the later Portuguese colony was known as Dongo. The region now known as Angola was reached by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in 1484, the year before, the Portuguese had established relations with the Kongo, which stretched at the time from modern Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese established their primary trading post at Soyo, which is now the northernmost city in Angola apart from the Cabinda exclave

43.
Argentina
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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic

44.
The Bahamas
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The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is an archipelagic state within the Lucayan Archipelago. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence, the designation of the Bahamas can refer either to the country or to the larger island chain that it shares with the Turks and Caicos Islands. As stated in the mandate/manifesto of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Bahamas is the site of Columbus first landfall in the New World in 1492. At that time, the islands were inhabited by the Lucayan, although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera, the Bahamas became a British Crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American War of Independence, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas, they brought their slaves with them, Africans constituted the majority of the population from this period. Slavery in the Bahamas was abolished in 1834, Today the descendants of slaves and free Africans make up nearly 90% of the population, issues related to the slavery years are part of society. The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973, retaining Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, in terms of gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas, with an economy based on tourism and finance. The name Bahamas is derived from either the Taino ba ha ma, alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning. In English, the Bahamas is one of two countries whose self-standing short name begins with the word the, along with The Gambia. Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 11th century and they came to be known as the Lucayan people. An estimated 30,000 Lucayan inhabited the Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus arrival in 1492, Columbuss first landfall in the New World was on an island he named San Salvador. Some researchers believe this site to be present-day San Salvador Island, an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbuss log. Evidence in support of this remains inconclusive, on the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayan and exchanged goods with them. The Spanish forced much of the Lucayan population to Hispaniola for use as forced labour, the slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity, half of the Taino died from smallpox alone. The population of the Bahamas was severely diminished, in 1648, the Eleutherian Adventurers, led by William Sayle, migrated from Bermuda. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named Eleuthera—the name derives from the Greek word for freedom and they later settled New Providence, naming it Sayles Island after one of their leaders. To survive, the settlers salvaged goods from wrecks, in 1670 King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America

45.
Barbados
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Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles, in the Americas. It is 34 kilometres in length and up to 23 km in width, Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Amerindians, Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and it first appeared in a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese visited the island in 1536, but they left it unclaimed, an English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1625, its men took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and it became an English, in 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with the British Monarch as hereditary head of state. It has a population of 280,121 people, predominantly of African descent, despite being classified as an Atlantic island, Barbados is considered to be a part of the Caribbean, where it is ranked as a leading tourist destination. Forty percent of the come from the UK, with the US. In 2014, Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Barbados joint second in the Americas, the name Barbados is either the Portuguese word Barbados or the Spanish equivalent los Barbados, both meaning the bearded ones. In 1519, a map produced by the Genoese mapmaker Visconte Maggiolo showed and named Barbados in its correct position, furthermore, the island of Barbuda in the Leewards is very similar in name and was once named Las Barbudas by the Spanish. It is uncertain which European nation arrived first in Barbados, one lesser known source points to earlier-revealed works predating contemporary sources indicating it could have been the Spanish. Others believe the Portuguese, en route to Brazil, were the first Europeans to come upon the island, colloquially Barbadians refer to their home island as Bim or other nicknames associated with Barbados includes Bimshire. The origin is uncertain but several theories exist, the name could have arisen due to the relatively large percentage of enslaved Igbo people from modern-day southeastern Nigeria arriving in Barbados in the 18th century. The words Bim and Bimshire are recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, another possible source for Bim is reported to be in the Agricultural Reporter of 25 April 1868, where the Rev. N. Greenidge suggested the listing of Bimshire as a county of England. Expressly named were Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Bimshire, lastly, in the Daily Argosy of 1652 there is a reference to Bim as a possible corruption of Byam, the name of a Royalist leader against the Parliamentarians. That source suggested the followers of Byam became known as Bims, amerindian settlement of Barbados dates to about the 4th to 7th centuries AD, by a group known as the Saladoid-Barrancoid. In the 13th century, the Kalinago arrived from South America, the Spanish and Portuguese briefly claimed Barbados from the late 16th to the 17th centuries. The Arawaks are believed to have fled to neighbouring islands, apart from possibly displacing the Caribs, the Spanish and Portuguese made little impact and left the island uninhabited. Some Arawaks migrated from British Guiana in the 19th century and continue to live in Barbados, during the Cromwellian era this included a large number of prisoners-of-war, vagrants and people who were illicitly kidnapped, who were forcibly transported to the island and sold as servants

46.
Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density in Central America. The countrys population growth rate of 1. 87% per year is the second highest in the region, Belizes abundance of terrestrial and marine species and its diversity of ecosystems gives it a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize has a society, composed of many cultures and languages that reflect its rich history. English is the language of Belize, with Belizean Kriol being the unofficial language. Over half the population is multilingual, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language, Belize is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Belize is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, Belize is known for its September Celebrations, its extensive coral reefs, and punta music. The origin of the name Belize remains unclear, the earliest known record of the name appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast, Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River and it is likely that Delgados Balis was actually the Mayan word belix, meaning muddy-watered. Others have suggested that the name derives from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, there is no proof that Wallace settled in this area and some scholars have characterized this claim as a myth. Writers and historians have suggested other possible etymologies, including postulated French. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination, prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilisation emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began about 250 AD. The Maya civilisation spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, the recorded history of the middle and southern regions is dominated by Caracol, an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains, the most important political centre was Lamanai, in the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation, as many as 1 million people may have lived in the area that is now Belize

47.
Bolivia
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Bolivia, officially known as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest by Chile, and to the northwest by Peru. One-third of the country is the Andean mountain range, with one of its largest cities and principal economic centers, El Alto, Bolivia is one of two landlocked countries that lie outside Afro-Eurasia. Bolivia is geographically the largest landlocked country in the Americas, but remains a small country in economic. Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, Spanish conquistadors arriving from Cuzco and Asunción took control of the region in the 16th century. During the Spanish colonial period Bolivia was administered by the Royal Audiencia of Charcas, spain built its empire in great part upon the silver that was extracted from Bolivias mines. After the first call for independence in 1809,16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar, on 6 August 1825. Since independence, Bolivia has endured periods of political and economic instability, including the loss of peripheral territories to its neighbors, such as Acre. The countrys population, estimated at 11 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Mestizos, the racial and social segregation that arose from Spanish colonialism has continued to the modern era. Spanish is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages also have official status, of which the most commonly spoken are Guarani, Aymara, modern Bolivia is constitutionally a unitary state, divided into nine departments. Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands and it is a developing country, with a medium ranking in the Human Development Index and a poverty level of 53 percent. Its main economic activities include agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and manufacturing such as textiles, clothing, refined metals. Bolivia is very wealthy in minerals, especially tin, Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar, a leader in the Spanish American wars of independence. Sucre opted to create a new nation and, with local support. The original name was Republic of Bolívar, some days later, congressman Manuel Martín Cruz proposed, If from Romulus comes Rome, then from Bolívar comes Bolivia. The name was approved by the Republic on 3 October 1825, the region now known as Bolivia had been occupied for over 2,500 years when the Aymara arrived. However, present-day Aymara associate themselves with the ancient civilization of the Tiwanaku culture which had its capital at Tiwanaku, the capital city of Tiwanaku dates from as early as 1500 BC when it was a small, agriculturally based village. The community grew to urban proportions between AD600 and AD800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes

48.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama

A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in …

Large-sized Series of 1880 United States Notes; the $20 note displays Alexander Hamilton and a red scalloped Treasury seal, and the $10 note displays Daniel Webster and a large red spiked Treasury seal.

Comparison of a $5 Demand Note (upper image) and an 1862 issue $5 United States Note (lower image). Note the removal of the words "On Demand" and of the phrase "Receivable in Payment of All Public Dues". Also note the Treasury Seal added to the United States Note.

A political cartoon from the 1864 election depicting Secretary Fessenden of the Lincoln administration operating "Chase's Mill" at left to flood the country with Greenbacks.

The United States five-dollar bill ($5) is a denomination of United States currency. The current $5 bill features the …

Image: US $5 Series 2006 obverse

Daguerreotype of Lincoln taken on the same February day by Mathew Brady, used for the redesigned $5 bills from 1999 onwards. Note that this image is a mirror of Lincoln as he appears on the bill - this is because the daguerreotype process produced a single positive image (rather than a negative made on film, which is then used to make a true photographic positive), and the daguerreotype was always a mirror image of the subject material. Thus, the way Lincoln appears on the bill is actually how he appeared when seated for the picture.

The reverse of the five-dollar bill has two rectangular strips that are blanked out when viewed in the infrared spectrum, as seen in this image taken by an infrared camera.